Show V CHANGE VARIETY OF APPLES process of making transformation Is simple and can be done by almost any farmer in times past unscrupulous nursery nien men and fake tree agents have distributed a good many morth worthless less varieties of apple trees farmers who ordered them for their home orchards usually had ideas ns as to w N hat flat they wanted and in giving an order they would specify their varieties kven even expert nurseryman nurserymen nursery men cannot with certainty tell the variety of fruit by the looks of the young or old tree consequently it was very easy tor for these agents to substitute any varieties in place of the ones ordered there was a heavy demand tor for the more valuable varieties find and the supply was insufficient to meet this demand in in the earlier history lii story of the corn belt says a writer in wallaces laces farmer this encouraged the substitution and hundreds of farmers have found their orchards filled with early or woith worthless less fault which they illey care nothing about it is fortunate that an apple tree of one variety may be changed into any other one or more varieties desired some have tak n advant advantage of this fact and have simply remade their orchards getting rid of the varieties they do not want and now from the same crime trees are harvesting the fruit of their choice while it requires years filin planting time to bring an apple tree to hearing bearing the can be changed into something desired in a very few years the process of making this transformation 1 is quite simple and can be done by anyone who mho Is willing to go to the trouble it is know knon n its as top working the best time for making these grafts is just before growth starts in the spring all blat is necessary Is that the tree be fairly vigorous in health and that good scions of the variety wanted be ba obtained from some rel reliable lable nurseryman or from a tree which is known to produce the particular vai lety the scion itself Is simply a small flitting cutting taken from the previous years growth it should have two or three buds and be from three to six inches long the scions may be cut in the spring from the ends enda ot of bearing brandies or cut the previous fall ana and stored until needed it is important that they be inserted when hen they are dormant in picking out d a tree from which scions are to be cut one should select one which is known to bear well and to produce fruit of good quality the accompanying cut shows how to insert the scion the limb to be graft oil od Is cut olt off smooth and Is then split the large end of the twig cut for a scion asclon Is then made into a wedge tapering to a V shaped point tills this can be dotty done with two of a sharp jackknife lia knife ilfe which w will ill leave the surface smooth smoot li to insert the scion properly plan for inserting scion the split in the limb should be held open by some sort of a wedge edge then the clon Is pushed in until the inner bark of it comes in contact with the inner bark of the limb it la Is preferable to have lave two scions placing one at each edge of the split only the one which shows the most vigor is allowed to de deN deeloy elop clop bovi however ever the most important part to provide for in grafting Is to make sure that the inner bark or camb cambium lurn layer of the scion comes in contact with the inner bark of the parent branch which Is to teed feed it with the scions in place the next step is to boer the lie wound with mith gratt graft irp wax which can be purchased ready prepared or made at home according to a formula which will vill be given in a following paragraph the soft wax was is applied over the ends of the scions and over the cut qui surfaces fit ce q making them both air and watertight water tight it Is a good idea to bial a cloth around the graft to protect the wax from the sun later tn ill the summer grafting wax may be made at home by moiling melting toge together one part of tallow or linseed oil two parts of beeswax and four parts of resin it Is pulled like taffy as soon eoon is as it Is cool enough land ind wrapped up in ill plied piled paper another formula if the wax Is to be applied with a brush is to melt together six parts of resin one part of lins linseed LeLl oil and one part of beeswax tilt tills wust be kept in a melted state while the grafting Is done hut but it should not be applied too hot grafting wax Is very sticky and must be handled with greased hands |