1909. 
305 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKER 
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electrically welded. 
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PITTSBURGH STEEL CO 
PITTSBURGH, PA. 
THE WELD 
THAT HELD 
r/yfWELD7WHELD 
"FOSTER MOTHER” ROOT-GRAFTING. 
PRACTICAL IN NORTHWEST. 
Are yoii familiar with the so-called 
"foster-mother" root system of grafting 
apples advocated by the Gardner Nursery 
Co.? If so, will ybu he kind enough to 
tell us if you think it will make a hardier 
tree for far northern latitudes? Some of 
our readers in Western Canada seem to 
think such trees would he better than 
whole-root grafted. 
It would, if adopted after this plan: 
First you would use Fluke’s Virginia 
crab scions, rooting them by this method. 
Grow these crabs two years in nursery 
and top-work them to known varieties. 
This, I consider, would make the high¬ 
est class hardy tree for any northern 
latitude that now could be invented. 
Fluke’s Virginia crab roots very easily 
from scion, some seasons nearly as eas¬ 
ily as willows or cottonwoods. The 
root in such cases is of known hardi¬ 
ness, and will shortly absorb all the 
seedling roots used to start the Virginia 
scion. It takes but a very short piece 
scion to start the Virginia to rooting 
from its own scion, and the crab be¬ 
ing so vigorous a grower would entirely 
out-distance the seedling root and dwarf 
it to insignificance, and you would have 
a tree crab; root, stock, forks and the 
limbs can be grafted to almost any va¬ 
riety, and the crab referred to will grow 
an improved apple, improving common 
types on it as a stock. This is a known 
factor. It will make a Gano, North¬ 
western Greening, Ben Davis, Jonathan., 
Grimes, Winesap, all better apples than 
if grown on their own stems and stock 
and roots. This was found out in ex¬ 
periments these last few years. Manv 
varieties can he grown hundreds of 
miles north of their natural habitat by 
this improvement of stem and trunk 
and fork. But in mentioning and speak¬ 
ing of Virginia crab I do not mean east¬ 
ern form, hut the western form known 
as Fluke’s Virginia crab only. 
Iowa. W. M. BOMBERGER. 
I suppose the method of grafting to 
which you refer is the one with the 
short stock and the long scion. This 
is the method that is generally practiced 
by northwestern nurserymen and fruit 
growers. In buying apple trees we nat¬ 
urally look to seg if the tree has two 
sets of roots, the first coming from the 
original root and the second from the 
scion. Unless it is provided with the 
second set we ordinarily bid it farewell 
at the time of planting. The roots com¬ 
ing from the scion are naturally hardier 
than the stock would be, inasmuch as 
we are obliged to get our apple seed 
from regions that do not produce the 
hardiest apples. Our seedling apple 
trees grown from Minnesota apple seed 
are somewhat hardier than those grown 
from Vermont seed. About one in five 
of our Minnesota seedlings live in this 
climate without protection. As all of 
our hardiest apples, like the Hibernal 
and Duchess, easily endure our Win¬ 
ters it will be seen that the Minnesota 
stock is still much tenderer than our 
hardiest varieties. For all of these 
reasons there is no question as to the 
superiority of short stock and long scion. 
North Dakota. c. b. waldron. 
The so-called “foster-mother” .root 
graft is merely a modification of a “long 
scion method,” quite generally practiced 
in the upper Mississippi Valley. As 
you know, our fruit trees suffer a good 
deal from root-killing in the Winter, 
both in the nursery row and in the or¬ 
chard. To obviate this as far as pos¬ 
sible the plan is followed of using a 
short stock and a scion at least double 
the length of the stock, with the idea 
of getting the tender portion down 
deep where it will be better protected. 
Under these conditions there is also a 
tendency for the scion to emit roots 
above the point of union, thus ultimately 
securing an “own-rooted” tree. The 
foster mother is merely a slight mod¬ 
ification of this idea, and I doubt if 
its advantages compensate for the addi¬ 
tional labor involved in making that 
kind of a graft. The fact of its being 
something new and different no doubt 
appeals to some planters. 
We find that different varieties of 
apples vary greatly in their ability to 
become own-rooted. Some sorts, such 
as the Northwestern Greening, throw 
out roots very readily along the scion. 
In fact, I think there are some varie¬ 
ties of apples that could be grown from 
cuttings, while with other sorts it is 
seldom that you find any tendency to¬ 
wards their becoming “own-rooted.” O.f 
course, at the vory bottom of this whole 
trouble is the fact that the French stock 
is used very largely for grafting pur¬ 
poses. If our growers would use stocks 
of the hardiest varieties grown in the 
upper Mississippi Valley, such as the 
Duchess and Hibernal, we would then 
have a root just as hardy as the top 
of the tree, and there would be no 
trouble. We find the stocks grown from 
the Vermont seed are ' much hardier 
than the French, and the limited use 
of the eastern seed has helped us some¬ 
what, but the growing of stocks from 
seed of western varieties .is the real 
solution of the problem in my judgment. 
Iowa Station. a. t. erwin. 
I have seen something of this, and 
regard it as a fairly good way of 
propagating, especially when one wishes 
to get scions upon their ‘own roots. 
When the trees are transplanted this 
little piece of mother root can easily 
be removed if the scion has thrown 
out sufficient roots to nourish 'the tree. 
I see no reason why this should make 
a hardier rooted tree, particularly since 
in the Northwest, they have hardier 
stocks than <the common apple variety 
upon which to work. \v. paddock. 
and this is the only tiling that has reached 
them. Some stayed away because they 
thought it wouldn’t amount to much, or 
as one man said, “It would all be over 
my head,” but those who came out to the 
meetings along the line got the idea that it 
was straight business, aimed at tlie com¬ 
mon farmer in common-sense language, and 
the word lias spread that those who did 
not come missed a very helpful talk by a 
man who is a master of his subject. If 
the train should come through here again 
it would draw much larger audiences, 
'’hester Co., Pa. s. s. d. 
Farm Institutes On Wheels. 
'You ask for opinions on train schools 
of agriculture. Our State College ran one 
through southeastern Pennsylvania last 
Fall. They wisely choose a route leading 
over branch roads, and stopped at places 
away from large towns. It meant business 
from start to finish. You went into your 
car and heard the lecture or demonstration, 
and it was time for the school to go on. 
Many men feel out of place at farmers’ in¬ 
stitutes (I don’t say that they should feel 
so, but that they do, and so stay away) 
either because there are too many town 
people there, or sadder still, because they 
can’t afford the time for so much music, 
and talk about subjects by men who know 
less than the farmers themselves. Many of 
these men are poor, but eager and appre¬ 
ciative. They constitute a class most need¬ 
ing the services of our experiment station, 
The Way They Talk. 
•We are not farming, but cannot let Tim 
R. N.-Y. go so long as it stands for what 
it does. That Dawley work was tine. No 
American newspaper has done finer along 
that line, and I believe it is the line which 
on the whole we need most. »IIow did 
they keep it so nearly out of the daily 
papers? No one who did not take Tim 
It. N.-Y. knows anything about it. 
Keep at the “parcels post.” The ex¬ 
press companies and retail merchants asso¬ 
ciations are at it all the time. A short 
time ago a friend of mine, a local hard¬ 
ware man who had just returned from 
the "Hardware •Dealers’ convention, re¬ 
marked to me that the Association did not 
amount to much to the ordinary dealer 
except what they did with the dues. I 
asked what they do with the dues. “They 
look after legislation,” was the reply. 
“What legislation do the hardware men j 
need?” I asked. “They oppose parcels 
post,” was the reply. lie was full of the 
terrible deficit there was in the Post Office 
Department, and denounced making it 
larger irtf the interest of mail order 
houses. •When I put 'acts at him he 
owned that he was not up on the subject, 
but that was what they said. When I 
spoke of the express companies he was 
right with me there. *He had not thought 
of their having anything to do with the 
situation. They had not been mentioned 
in the convention, and at last had to own 
that perhaps parcels post might help him 
as much as it hjurt him. I would be 
ready to venture anything that the lead¬ 
ers of these trade association are under 
the influence of and likely some of them 
in the pay of the express companies. 
Cayuga Co., N. Y. s. J. 
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RANOUR. 
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A Farm Renting Problem. 
D. .S'., Pittsburg, Pa .—I would like to 
have estimates on the following proposi¬ 
tions in regard to share renting of farm. 
Custom in this locality is that renter fur¬ 
nishes everything hut land and buildings, 
and takes one-half of crops. What would 
be a fair percentage of crop to renter 
where owner pays $25 per month cash 
wages? What per cent of crop to renter, 
owner to pay $25 per month cash wages, 
furnishes all seed and all commercial fer¬ 
tilizer? What per cent of crop to renter, 
owner to furnish all seed, commercial fer¬ 
tilizer, one team and $25. per month? 
Farm of 160 acres, 60 acres tillable. Re¬ 
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very large city; smaller towns nearer; one 
mile to trolley; 1% mile to macadam and 
plank roads. 
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DOKALB FENCE CO., - DoKALB, ILL. 
Southwestern Office nn^ Warehouse, Kansas City, Mo. 
FENCE iKSSES ' 1 
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prices on 30 days’ free trial, 
pay all freight. 37 heights of farm 
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COILED SPRING FENCE CO. 
Box 263 Winchester, Indiana. 
15 Cents a Rosil 
For a 22-Inch Hog Fence; J6c for 
26-lnch; 19c for 31-lncli; 22 l-2e 
for 31-Inch; 27c for a 47-inch 
Farm Fence. 60-Inch Poultry 
Fence 37r. Lowest prices ever 
made. Sold on 30 days trial. 
Uata log frce. W rl to f or 11 today. 
KITSELMAN BROS., 
Box 230, MUNCIE, IND. 
Freight Paid 
as far as the Ohio and Mis¬ 
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EMPIRE 
“Big Wire” Fence 
AH 
Wires 
Same 
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Bond Steel Post Co., Adrian, Mich. 
