130 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



been stated to show that whatever influence is exerted by the 

 stock will be toward making the fruit approach in color to the 

 fruit borne by the stock." 



Again, as to season of ripening : if so variable and 

 elusive a character as color of fruit is likely to be transmit- 

 ted, is it not reasonable to expect that the period at Avhich a 

 certain variety ripens might be changed by varying the stocks 

 upon which the variety is grafted? In this connection Prof. 

 Baile}'^ says : " Grafting often modifies the season of ripening 

 of fruit. This is brought about by different habits of ma- 

 turity of growth in stock and scion. An experiment with 

 Winter Nellis pears showed that fruit kept longer when 

 grown upon Bloodgood stocks than when grown upon Flemish 

 Beauty stocks. The latter stocks in this case evidently com- 

 pleted their growth sooner than others. Twenty-Ounce apple 

 has been known to ripen in advance of its season by being 

 worked upon Early Harvest. If all this has been done, is it 

 not reasonable to suppose that if the Gravensteins were 

 grafted on the Ben Davis, as was before suggested, not only 

 would the color be improved, but the result would be Grav- 

 enstein apples with better keeping qualities? Some one may 

 object here that if the Gravensteins be thus grafted on the 

 Ben Davis, it will not only partake of the character of the 

 latter in color and season of ripening, but in other qualities 

 as well, and we shall have our Gravensteins, the pride of 

 Nova vScotia, tending to become as dr}^ and tasteless as is 

 pi'overbially the case with the Ben Davis. In answer to this 

 objection I would say that there might be some ground for it ; 

 yet it is not a real objection, since in the common practice of 

 root-grafting we graft the Gravenstein unto seedlings, not one 

 in ten thousand of which would probably be equal to the 

 Ben Davis. 



" One other point in this connection is worthy of the most 

 careful consideration, and that is the importance of selecting 

 scions from the best and most prolific trees in propagating 

 any variety. Every observant orchardist knows that certain 

 of his Gravenstein trees, for example, bear more and better 

 fruit than certain others do, and the same is true of other 

 varieties. Not only this, but certain branches of a tree bear 

 better than others. As a proof of this fact that even all 

 branches of the same tree are not alike, I need only to cite 

 the case of the Red Gravenstein, which originated on a single 

 branch of a Gravenstein tree. With these facts before us it 

 is scarcely necessary to state the conclusion that the selection 



