3 62 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
and Sweden, Sicily, Italy, Switzerland and Germany were 
well known ground to him. On his three years’ pleasure 
trip around the globe in 1898 to 1901 he visited most of the 
principal horticultural centers. It was a tour which brought 
him the keenest enjoyment of his life. Returning to his 
English home, his remaining years were passed in quietness, 
with mind unimpaired and spirit buoyant. He was a 
recipient of the Victorian Medal of Honor. 
Only a few days before the dispatch brought news of the 
death of the daffodil king we had the pleasure of reading a 
long letter in his own hand, congratulating us on American 
progress in peony culture. In addition to the words of com¬ 
mendation the letter contained valuable information regard¬ 
ing the best collections of peonies in Europe, and giving his 
recollections of his last visit to Cornell University. 
He says in regard to collecting peonies: “I spent many 
years in collecting Peony albiflora from the growers of 
France, Holland and at home (Britain). I found all the 
best had a multitude of names. I set to work to get rid of 
the synonyms, as a first step, selecting the best name. Then 
I classed them into colors, as you will see from Barr’s plant 
catalogue. The third step was to make a selection of the 
very best forms. It is now nearly fourteen years since I 
handed over the business to my three sons and in that time 
they have increased it considerably.” Speaking of his 
travels, Mr. Barr says: ‘‘When I visited Cornell I was on a 
five years’ tour, passing twice over the United States and 
spending one year six months in Japan, then a short stay in 
China, visited the Philippines, and did Australia from Port 
Darwin to the gold fields of Western Australia, New Zealand 
from Auckland to the Bluff, round Tasmania, two voyages 
in the South Sea Islands, and nearly two years in South 
Africa. On getting home I prepared to go to. Cairo and up 
the Nile to Khartoum, then through Palestine and Cyprus to 
Constantinople, returning home by Greece, and settled down 
here and took up as a hobby the task of improving the prim¬ 
rose and polyanthus. I have made good progress with the 
polyanthus. Would you like some seed? You can rely 
upon my sons being willing to cooperate with you in your 
peony studies.” This suggests the vital and close interest 
which this veteran horticulturist maintained in the general 
field of plant culture practically to the end. 
Those who met Mr. Barr on his American tour were im¬ 
pressed with his vigor and keen interest in all branches of 
plant development. His example will remain a stimulus 
and inspiration to those who love gardening for its own sake. 
A NOVEL METHOD OF TOP WORKING OLD TREES 
After sawing off the branches where we wish to insert 
the cions, it has long been the usual custom to split the stock 
in some form with some tool and hold the cleft open to receive 
the cion, but it was almost a barbarous method and often, 
with the greatest care, invited decay and disease and en¬ 
dangered the usefulness and life of the tree. There have 
been many efforts made to find some method to avoid the 
splitting. I know one Scotch horticulturist, who, by his 
knowledge and skill, has made a reputation on three conti¬ 
nents and friends wherever known, has used his knife 
to cut a V-shaped recess in the side of the stock in which to 
place the tapered end of the cion, but the process was slow 
and only used in occasional work. A few years ago a little 
hand machine was invented and advertised here in Califor¬ 
nia to cut the recess. The idea seemed a good one at first 
sight, but, like many others, proved so in theory only. The 
knife was hard to keep sharp, and the back of the stock was 
apt to be torn and lifted around the cut. We have heard 
nothing from it for several years. 
A few years ago a rather new idea originated with a Mr. 
W. S. Coburn of Hotchkiss, Colorado. [Reported in the 
Proceedings of the American Pomological Society, 1 go 5 Ed.] 
Instead of splitting the stock, he made a kerf with his prun¬ 
ing saw into the side of the stock, perhaps a half inch deep at 
the upper portion and extending down the side far enough 
to give the cion a proper seat—about one and a half inches, 
and then with a saddler’s or other knife, formed a V-shaped 
recess. This was much better than the old method, but the 
tools and the time required seemed to make it rather slow, 
and I tried several combinations of saw and knife to do the 
work more speedily, but they all seemed to be more or less a 
failure. 
Among my old tools was what used to be called a sash 
saw, a small saw about a foot long, with thin blade, a stiff 
back and about twenty teeth to the inch. Dressing it as a 
rip saw (my old wood working friends will know what that 
means), running an oil stone lightly along the side of the 
teeth to make them smooth and true; boring a hole through 
the handle for a buckskin string to pass over the wrist, I soon 
found I had a tool, that, with a sharp pocket knife was just 
what was wanted. The saw being so thin and the teeth so 
fine, a V-shaped recess was easily sawed out that required 
little or no dressing or smoothing to receive the graft and a 
tap or two with the handle of the knife used to shape the 
cion placed in it firmly, ready for waxing. The width of 
the wedge-shaped piece sawed out of the stock should, of 
course, correspond with the size of the cion to be placed in the 
recess formed. The essential feature in having the saw do 
its work properly is that the teeth are very fine, true and 
sharp. It is said that ‘‘a workman is known by his chips,” 
but his best work, in either chips or the final result very 
much depends on the shape and quality of the tools he uses. 
I have used this method for the past two years and it has 
proven itself so satisfactory that now I would use no other 
that I know of in grafting over bearing trees and it can be 
used on stocks as small as half an inch in diameter. 
The wounds heal over more quickly than in the old 
splitting method; no sour sap oozing from the stock as is so 
often seen and a sure sign that nature is having a hard strug¬ 
gle with decay and disease; the cions grow with a more uni¬ 
form vigor and a less percentage of loss and beside the method 
is so simple, requiring so few tools and so few different 
motions in the work that it very soon comes easy to the 
hand and almost a pleasure instead of a painful duty. The 
pruning saw to cut off the limbs, which you lay aside as soon 
as you have cut from the tree what you wish, and then with 
your cions, your little saw hanging on your right wrist in 
easy reach of the hand and your pocket knife sharp, you are 
all ready to do your work, and when it is properly finished, 
Nature left in a way to easily do hers. 
Frank Femmons, 
Cal. 
