ny trouble like that?

Mr. Philips: No, sir, I think my soil is different from yours. My soil
is of a poor order, a heavy clay, and it don't make the growth.

Mr. Brackett: How many of those large limbs could you cut off in one
year and graft?

Mr. Philips: Cut about half of the growth of the tree if not too large,
don't cut enough to weaken the tree too much. Next year cut the balance
off.

Mr. Crosby: In grafting, suppose you get scions from an Eastern state,
what time would you get those scions, say, from Maine; Maine is on a
parallel with Minnesota?

Mr. Philips: I prefer cutting scions in the fall before they freeze.

Mr. Crosby: How would you keep those scions?

Mr. Philips: I have tried a great many ways, in dirt and burying them in
the ground, but the best way to keep them is to put them in boxes and
put some leaves among them. Leaves will preserve them all winter if you
keep them moist enough, wet them a little once in ten days just to keep
them damp. Leaves are a more natural protection than anything else.
Don't you think so, Mr. Brackett?

Mr. Brackett: Yes, sir.

Mr. Crosby: What kind of a graft do you usually make?

Mr. Philips: I have put in some few whip-grafts but use the cleft-graft
with the larger limbs.

Mr. Wallace: Is the Patten Greening a good tree to graft onto?

Mr. Philips: It is better for that than most anything else where I live.
It is hardy and makes a good growth. If I had Patten Greenings, many of
them, I would top-work them. The apple is not a good seller where I
live.

Mr. Kellogg: What was the condition of that tree where Dartt put in four
scions?

Mr. Philips: They grew eight inches each in two years, then died. Those
scions were too weak to take possession of the big limb. It is like
putting an ox yoke onto a calf. They can't adapt themselves. They hadn't
strength to take hold of that limb and grow. That was a good
illustration. Put a graft on a small limb, and it will assimilate and
grow better than if you take a large one.

Mr. Brackett: Where you put in more than one scion in a limb, is it
feasible to leave more than one to grow?

Mr. Philips: No, not if they grow crotchy. I let them grow one year to
get firmly established and then I take off the lower one. I have trees
in my garden I have done that with, and you couldn't see the crotch. It
grows right over.

Mr. Brackett: I have seen a great many of them where both of them were
growing.

Mr. Philips: It ma