This opportunity to grow different kinds of
fruit on one tree imparts a new and delightful interest to the
orchard. The proprietor can always be on the lookout for something
new and fine, and the few moments required in grafting or budding
make it his. The operation is so simple and easy that he can learn
to perform it himself, and there are always plenty of adepts in
the rural vicinage to give him his initial lesson. While he will
keep the standard kinds for his main supply, he can gratify his
taste and eye with some pretty innovations. I know of an apple-
tree which bears over a hundred varieties. A branch, for instance,
is producing Yellow Bell-flowers. At a certain point in its growth
where it has the diameter of a man's thumb it may be grafted with
the Red Baldwin. When the scion has grown for two or three years,
its leading shoots can be grafted with the Roxbury Russet, and
eventually the terminal bough of this growth with the Early
Harvest. Thus may be presented the interesting spectacle of one
limb of a tree yielding four very distinct kinds of apples.
In the limited area of an acre there is usually not very much
range in soil and locality. The owner must make the best of what
he has bought, and remedy unfavorable conditions, if they exist,
by skill. It should be remembered that peaty, cold, damp, spongy
soils are unfit for fruit-trees of any kind.
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