Top-Working Fruit Trees. 
O. B. WHIPPLE 
It is becoming more and more apparent that certain localities 
and soils are peculiarly adapted to growing particular kinds and even 
varieties of fruit. Commercial fruit-growing localities are making 
their reputation by being able to grow a few varieties well. So 
each new fruit country must go through an experimental stage when 
a host of varieties is being tested to determine those best adapted to 
its peculiar conditions. Then in the growth of each new fruit country 
there comes a time when the grower will have to solve the problem 
as to what to do with the undesirable varieties. Shall he pull them 
out or graft them over to better varieties? Systems of grafting-over 
old trees have long been practiced and experience has proven that, 
if properly done, top-working brings quicker returns than the replant¬ 
ing of young trees. It is not uncommon to see a fairly good crop 
on the three-year-old top of a top-worked tree. Trees properly 
worked-over give tops as desirable and sometimes more so than trees 
of the same variety grown from first-class nursery stock. 
Top-working as a means of establishing a weak-growing variety 
on a stronger root system than its own is now coming into favor. The 
Rome (Beauty) when on its own roots is, on the best soil, an in¬ 
different grower; but, when worked on some strong-growing stump, 
it makes a very satisfactory tree. Some varieties of apple, susceptable 
to attacks of root rots, could, no doubt, be successfully grown on 
roots of varieties which are apparently resistant. The Northern Spy 
seems to be a striking example of an apple tree root free from the 
attacks of woolly aphis and is sometimes planted and later worked 
over to other varieties. Broken and diseased limbs may be saved 
by grafting, and progressive fruit growers who desire to test new 
varieties can best do it by grafting a few cions into bearing trees. 
Some years ago the fruit grower looked upon the practice of 
grafting as a mysterious art and upon the man who went about 
doing the work as a sort of a wizard; as a matter of fact, it is so 
simple that any careful orchardist can and should do it himself. 
All of our common fruit trees can be easily grafted or budded. The 
apple and pear may be intergrafted upon each other and the same 
may be said of the peach, plum, apricot and almond. But in prac¬ 
tice, we do not carry on such wholesale mixing, it may be said that 
the apple and pear never make a good union. While such combina¬ 
tions may unite, the union may not be perfect enough to make a good 
top. We would not expect the top-working of apple to pear or vice 
versa to be a success. The writer has seen peach grafts start very 
vigorously upon apricot, and plums upon peach trees. I have observed 
