Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/55

Rh fifty trees. It was said and believed by many that the union would not be good at the graft, and trees thus treated would break down under a heavy load of fruit or from our occasional heavy sleets. This has not proven true—only a suspicious foreboding. Under a heavy weight of fruit and in two heavy sleets the union of the graft, to the contrary, has proven to be as strong as any part of the tree, and it has transpired that this top-grafting is not so difficult and mysterious a handicraft as is generally supposed. Any careful, painstaking man can, in a few hours, learn to set a graft; and so with the waxing, etc. A sharp grafting knife, a trimming saw, a package of cotton batting, a waxing brush, and a heating appliance with kettle of grafting wax, is all the equipment required. For wax, linseed oil and resin, heated and mixed to a right consistence (which is a matter of a little common sense experience). A man who could not learn to top-graft in a day or two of experience I should not consider an orchardist or fit to work in an orchard.

My grafting has been done in March, April, and May, sometimes even after trees were in bloom and leaf. Scions cut in January or February, tied in bunches and set (out ends down) in loose earth on the north side of a building, under shed, have always kept well.

Now it transpires that eastern Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, and other localities, grow successfully the Italian prune, and could probably supply the market of the United States. California set great areas of French prunes, and overdid the business, as Californians are apt to do. Probably California, in the near future, will produce more prunes than the world now consumes. For these and other reasons prunes annually dropped in prices from twelve and one half to four cents, and five and one half cents, the present offering. This year the four sizes of French prunes are held at two and