Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-04-02
For the VERMONT FARMER,
Grating.

above heading, the writer proposes to give
the farmers some instruction in grating ap-
pie trees, but unfortunately seems to forget
his subject, and uses ink most freely in de-
nouncing what he is pleased to call root
grated humbug trees" and in advertising a
quantity of trees for sale, giving list ofva-
rieties, number on hand, and size, quality,
price, &c, &C., and instead of explaining to
the farmers how good stock of thrifty
young trees can be produced, advises them
to graft the trees that grow up around the
farm" Now this implies that he would
have trees grated at some point ADORE the
surface of the ground, if l understand his ar
gument, but this plan of grating these old
scrubs in the top, usually the second growth
of tender trees that have once winter killed)
is found to be quite an uncertain, slow, and
Improbable method Of getting up an orch
ard, and will not answer for this section Of
Vermont, although it may in his locality.
Many who have tried this old method Of
celt-graftiug in the top have only met with
disappointment, and except ou some very
hardy specimens (such are the only ones
worth tOp-graftiug) have generally lost both
the labor and the trees. A harder tree is
produced by grating a small, thrifty seed
ling with the scion of hardy tree, al The
root, using only scions of the last years
growth, and having the root and scion exact
ly Of size, thus iusuring good fit aud a
sound, healthy joint, if the scion is sound
and healthy and the work is well done.
Trees may be produced in this way that are
what the nurserymen call "irou clad" that
is, perfectly safe from injury by climate in
our worst seasons, by taking scions from an
'iron clad" tree to graft with, as the whole
tree, trunk and top, from the tip to the
ground, is then composed of the hardy sort,
which is very important. This is perfectly
apparent to any one. Seedlings are, very
many Of them, tender, and a scion though
ever so hardy, will make tender tree if
grated a few inches or few feet up from
the ground on tender sort. 1t is like put.
ting sound superstructure on a rotten toun-
dation and yet if the tender portion is all
6elO'o the surface there is no difficulty about
winter killing. BY root-graftiug (which the
writer calls "humbug"0 probably four-hiths
of all the nursery trees and very large pro.
portion of all the fruit, producing orchards of
New England AMI the western states are pro
dueed.
The method which | use most is as fol.
lows: Make a slanting cut at the end Of
both scion and root SO that they will splice
together and fit well; then bind firmly to-
gether with waxed cloth so as to exclude as
much as possible the air and external mois
ture and set them in good ground so that the
joint thus formed will be entirely below the
surface.
have a method Of grating older trees
which succeeds better here than the method
given in the article referred to above, which
1 will give in another number of the FARMEH
in season for use this spring.
1t seems to me that one of the worst kinds
of"humbugging" practiced upon our farmers
is that Of recommending tender varieties in
localities where they are utterly unsuitable
We have learned to our sorrow in Northern
Vermont that the Baldwins, Rhode Island
Greetings, Nonesuch, Spitzenbergs, ROx'
bury Russets, and many other such varie
ties recommended by the above mentioned
advertiser, are just calculated to lead to Ger
tain disappointment and loss if we attemp
to grow an orchard Of them, although som,
of these tree venders still have the cheek h
assert that they must be accepted as the fna
result of all honest investigation and re
search, and seem to have great horror o
all "neW varieties" and to believe that tn
law of progress applies to everything excep
improvement in frat trees. And so W
must continue to be feeced by buying an'
, planting these old varieties, which, judgin
from all experience and analogy, we hav
every reason to believe will die before the
attain bearing size, or give up the idea o
growing our own apples in this part Of tn
country which, by the by, we don't happeI
to be prepared to do just yet
l believe there are varieties Of native Yer
mont apples growing IN every county in tn
Northern portion of the state, from tn
soiOns of which an orchard could be prOpaga
ted by rOOt-graiting which would show goo