The Elbert County tribune., 1906-04-05
TOP GRATING APPLE TREES
By W. 8. Coburn, President State
Board of Horticulture. Hotch-


kiss, Colorado.
This method is confined to the apple
and the pear tree. You will see its ad-
vantages over the old way Of planting
the original tree of the variety desired
We all know that all apple trees are
not OF the same hardness, thrifty
growers and long lived. We will take,
for instance, three Of the kinds most in
demand for commercial purpose and
largely grown, especially on the west
ern slope OF this state; the Jonathan,
Winesap and Rome Beauty. The iona
than is only considered half hardy, but
one of the best early winter varieties
grown, and in great demand for Christ
mas and New Years. The tree while
young seems to be a fair grower and
yields large crops of good-sized ap-
pies. but at the age of fifteen to
twenty years we find many falling. The
tree stops growing, the foliage be-
comes small and often light colored,
the fruit while the tree is full also
stops growing and very little of it will
get to marketable size. Close exam
ination fails to reveal any disease, and
the conclusion arrived at is, that 1t,
like some of the human family, is short
lived. For that reason l would not
plant the Jonathan three.
The Rome Beauty tree is the next one
we will take under consideration, the
fruit of which is of large size. fine ap-
pearance. good quality, and its season
is the last of February and March un-
der the ordinary way of keeping ap-
pies, but when put into cold storage
comes out in April and May in fine
shape. The tree when first set is an
upright, rank grower in fact, it grows
SO thrifty that unless precautionary
measures are taken to stop its growth
and ripen up the wood, the trunk will Of
ten crack open from the limbs to the
ground. killing the tree. We have of
ten seen as many as ten acres of this
variety dying off every winter until at
the end of five years there were none
left. For this reason we would not
plant Rome Beauty tree.
The next under consideration is the
Winesap, an apple of rather medium
size, best quality, long keeper and
greatly in demand. 1t is generally un-
derstood by all fruit growers that to
grow the Winosap successfully it must
be planted on very rich deep soil for
best results, as the apple is naturally
rather understood. We will ask the
average planter If he has ever noticed
the Winesap trees as they came from
the nursery ready to plant in the or
chard. 1t is one of the poorest grow
ing trees in the nursery, sprawling
limbs, one sided ard the poorest
rooted; three or four main roots often
growing all on one side, with few
fbrous or lateral roots. For this rea-
son its capacity for gathering the fer
tilizing qualities of the surrounding
soil is limited and when the tree gets
tn ha <rf ,tx~rr al ,tr,ln
severely pruned and thinned out, the
fruit will be too small for market. For
this reason it behooves us to seek a
remedy, and the only remedy that we
have been able to prescribe is to top
graft on the thriftiest growing tree.
Top grating has been practiced for
hundreds of years and very little i'm
prOvement has been made on the old
style of splitting the stock. which is a
very bungling and unsatisfactory way,
and unreliable. Having planted a
large variety in a new country where
fruit growing was an experiment and
all kinds grew and matured to perfec-
ton, we naturally wanted to grow a
few of the best commercial varieties,
hence the necessity for either digging
up and planting again or top graft the
objectional ones. The planting of
yOuHS lIttS dIuOuS tuOSt lTOlu Ten "
twelve years old makes the orchard
present a ragged, uneven appearance,
hence my decision to top graft. We
have grated summer, fall and winter
varieties, red and yellow, sweet and
sour, to the Jonathan, Winesap and
Rome Beauty with the same success,
hence for the reasons given in the fore
going / would advocate planting the
hardest, rankest growing, best-rooted
trees that could be had and letting
them grow three years in the orchard
when the root system will become well
established and then top graft to such
varieties as the market in your local
ity demand.
For the benefit of those who are not ia
miliar with the hardest and thriftiest
growing trees it might be advisable
to mention some of them: The Scott's
Winter, Northern Spy. LAWYER, Red
Astrachan, Baldwin and Ben Davis,
also some of the crabs make fine stock
for the purpose, like Quaker Beauty,
Hyslop and General Grant Should
you have some of the shy-bearing va
rieties like Arkansas Black, Northern
Spy, or others, we would advise graft
ing them on the prolific stocks of
the crab family, or the Russian varie-
ties, which are usually great bearers.
l have made study and thorough
test of this branch of horticulture for
years and find 1t very satisfactory. In
conclusion, I would say that it is my
candid opinion that he who plants and
grows an orchard under the above di-
rections will have the thriftiest, long
est lived and best bearing orchard that
it is possible to grow.
Directions for Top Grating.
The method of grating is: Saw in
three-eighths of an inch on top and
two and one-half to three inches down
the side of limb Take one of these