Mr. Philips:  I should rather not.  I have always had scions enough to avoid using water shoots.  They are an unnatural growth; I wouldn’t use them.  Take a good healthy scion.

Mr. Kellogg:  Would scions from bearing trees with the blossom buds on do you any good?

Mr. Philips:  Well, not with a blossom bud on; I wouldn’t use such a scion.  Some people say if you cut your scions from a bearing tree they will bear quicker, but I never saw any difference.

Inasmuch as this question has been asked a great many times by people, what age to plant a tree, whether it is best to plant young trees or trees four or five years old, I will say I am in favor of young trees, and I am in favor of grafting a tree when it is young.

Mr. Brackett:  Isn’t that a general opinion in the West where they make a business of planting large orchards?

Mr. Philips:  I think so.  I think that is the case.

Mrs. Cadoo:  Can you graft onto a Martha crab and have success with that?

Mr. Philips:  I never had very good success with the Martha crab; it isn’t vigorous enough.

Mrs. Cadoo:  We had a tree twelve years and got seven apples.

Mr. Philips:  Well, I think I got eight. (Laughter.) I believe with the Martha crab if you will plant it where there are other crab trees around it you get a pretty good crop, but not if you isolate it.  I have an idea it is not self-fertilizing.  I think that is the trouble with the Martha.  It is a nice crab.

Mr. Brackett:  You showed the difference in size there, those top-worked and those not—­don’t you think that is because of cutting the top back?  You throw a heavy growth in there, which makes the fruit that much larger?

Mr. Philips:  Well, it might be.

Mr. Street:  Have you had any experience in budding in August or first of
September on those trees?

Mr. Philips:  Yes, sir, I do a little budding every year.  Budding is a hard thing to do, that is, it is a particular thing to get the bud matured enough and still have sufficient sap to slip.

Mr. Street:  Would you put it on the top or bottom side of the limb?

Mr. Philips:  I would put it on the upper side of the limb every time, but I would put it a little further from the trunk of the tree than I would to graft for the reason, if the bud fails you have two chances, and you have that same limb to cut off and graft next year.

[Illustration:  Winesap apples top-worked on Peerless, grown at Northfield, Minn.]

Mr. Johnson:  I want to ask if it has a tendency to make the apple any earlier?  Virginia crab is an early bloomer, and would grafting it with Wealthy make it bloom earlier?

Mr. Philips:  I hardly think so.  I think it is a great deal as it was with the man that had the boots.  Some told him his boots would wear longer if he greased them, and some one else told him they would wear longer if he did not.  So he greased one and not the other, and the one that he greased wore fifteen minutes longer than the other. (Laughter.) I don’t think it makes much difference.  I tell you what it does do.  You graft a McMahon onto a Virginia and instead of having the McMahon its usual color, you will get a very nice blush on it.