2 72 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
March. 2, 
TOP-WORKING YOUNG APPLE TREES. 
PAItT I. 
In making an addition to my first filler 
apple orchard in the Spring of 1899 I de¬ 
sired to set a few Williams Red as semi¬ 
fillers, and to obtain trees that should suit 
me decided to top-work on to some other 
variety. To do this I ordered 50 Wal- 
bridge, on the advice of a nurseryman who 
claimed to be short on Spy (the variety or¬ 
dered), but who might have been long on 
Walbridge. Anyway I received some very 
handsome trees; about 80 of these were 
immediately set and later budded to Will¬ 
iams, the buds being set in limbs from six 
to 15 inches from main body of tree. They 
have now borne a few crops of fi'uit, and 
are well shaped, handsome trees, except the 
Williams outgrows the Walbridge, the Will¬ 
iams wood being from one-third to one-half 
inch in diameter larger than the Walbridge 
wood below where budded. The others were 
set in nursery row and later budded to 
the variety desired. Wealthy has so far 
proved satisfactory, making a good clean 
growth where budded. Two rows of Hurl- 
but top-budded to Williams are larger 
trees, and only an expert would notice they 
had been top-worked to another variety. 
I also top-worked some lien Davis and 
I.onglield we had set as fillers to Wealthy ; 
the lien Davis especially has proved very 
satisfactory as a stock to top-work Wealthy 
upon. For various reasons, but mostly to 
improve the market value, I changed over 
perhaps 100 trees with practically no loss 
of time in their growth. They had been 
done in two or three different years when 
I had a little time to spare, and really had 
not hindered me much with other work. I 
now knew for certain what kind of apples 
those trees would bear when a few years 
older, and the bearing qualities of the 
trees from which the buds were taken ; that 
was surely worth working for, and I was 
catching the top-budding fever. As I have 
a cheap and satisfactory express service by 
which my fruit is sent to the Boston mar¬ 
ket 1 decided to add more Summer and 
Fall apples to my orchard. So in the 
Spring of 1904 I bought trees enough for 
that purpose, although not intending to set 
them all in one year. Even where I buy 
a first-class two-year-old tree I prefer to 
grow it here at least two years more be¬ 
fore setting out into a permanent orchard. 
I can start the tops there to suit me easier 
than when set in orchard form, and im¬ 
prove the root growth by at least one 
pruning, for I believe the root system can 
be improved by proper handling as well as 
the tops. 
I wished a few more Williams; for best 
results they must be top-worked. 1 had a 
couple of acres of Gravenstein ; this apple 
here is liable to injury from extreme cold 
largely on the body of the trees, the bark 
cracking or being killed in spots mostly 
near the ground. A year or two before a 
December freeze had killed a number of 
trees in this vicinity, the bark being 
killed entirely around the butt of the tree; 
I had only one such case. So I decided to 
top-work my Gravenstein. Had I stopped 
here it would have been dollars in my 
pockets, for later I decided to top-bud prac¬ 
tically all of them and then my troubles 
commenced. I ordered largely Spy, perhaps 
one-fourth Walbridge, and 50 Hurlbut 
two-year trees. These were satisfactory, 
except that the Hurlbut "were three years 
old, big sprawling tops, packed in one large 
box with a freight and packing charge of 
about 10 cents each. Limbs were some¬ 
what broken, and I would not advise any¬ 
one to buy such trees. These I thought 
best to set immediately; the rest, except 
some sold, I put into nursery rows where 
I intended to bud a good share of them 
the second year. 
With more fruit to handle, the labor 
problem growing worse every year, I soon 
found August too busy a month for me to 
spend time in top-budding trees. The only 
man I could ever hire for such work was 
off on a better job, and other help was out 
of the question. Part of the Ilurlbuts 
were top-worked to Williams, and these are 
now nice bearing trees ; the rest I grafted. 
1 have been greatly disappointed in graft¬ 
ing or budding Wealthy upon this strong 
growing tree, and I should have been bet¬ 
ter off had I used straight Wealthy trees, 
and yet the Williams thrives to perfection 
upon it. In 1906 a small orchard was set, 
all of which were grafted in 1909 or 1910. 
In 1907 I set, I hope, my last orchard; 
some Wealthys were set as fillers and about 
200 to top-work. This last season these 
were largely grafted to the varieties de¬ 
sired. 
With some large trees which I wished 
to change to more profitable varieties, or 
test new varieties, and some experimental 
work, one tree with at least a dozen strains 
of Baldwin from different States and nur¬ 
series, and one from a tree probably 100 
years old, I hope to sometime know if 
there is a difference worth working for in 
setting an orchard on the top-budding plan 
to Baldwins. I commenced grafting the 
latter part of March, choosing the warmest 
days, and worked nearly every day until my 
apples had been in bloom a number of days, 
certainly a month’s steady time. In my 
first work the scions were cut as we went 
along with satisfactory results. Before the 
buds began to swell I used scions cut ear¬ 
lier and kept for that purpose. It will 
still take a few day's work to finish my 
top-working experiment, and as I look back 
and count up the results I feel that the 
balance is on the wrong side of the ledger. 
I have spent a lot of time in unnecessary 
labor in a very busy time. I have lost at 
least three years’ time on a few hundred 
trees, and although the injury may not be 
large, I would prefer that my young trees 
should not be grafted if I wished to grow 
the ideal tree. On the other side, I have 
had a longer time and more experience in 
choosing varieties and now know for cer¬ 
tain what varieties my trees will bear, 
and perhaps of not much money value a 
lot of other experience on the top-working 
fad. h. o. MEAD. 
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