MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF THE STOCK AND GRAFT. 107 



uncongeniality of union. " Two exceptions he notes are the transfer 

 between stock and scion of the disease known as variegation, and the 

 influence of the scion on the form of the roots — the latter probably due to 

 rooting from the stock. The question he says is not yet settled, adding: 

 " If there is any effect upon the essential characteristics of the graft or 

 scion it must come from the commingling of the protoplasm of the two 

 [stock and graft] and this is exceedingly improbable at a distance from 

 the graft. " 



Thomas Meehan says (Mo. Hort. Kep., 1883, p. 266): ' Can the char- 

 acter of a tree be so changed by grafting as to produce such marked 

 variations as could not follow from mere laws of nutrition alone? There 

 have been some few observations made which seem to indicate the possi- 

 bility of some such influence, but we must say that these have been so few 

 that no general law that such is the case can be fairly drawn. " 



O. B. Hadwin of Massachusetts said: ' "We have very little positive 

 information as to the influence of the stock on the graft, but if such an 

 influence existed to any considerable extent we should in time lose the 

 original type of our fruits. " 



A.C.Hammond of Illinois said: 2 " It is now generally conceded by 

 intelligent writers and cultivators, that the stock affects the fruit of the 

 scion in quality, productiveness, and time of bearing. And that the scion 

 increases or retards the growth of the stock, and in some instances 

 imparts its own peculiarities to the root." 



B. Hathaway of Michigan said: s "I am well aware that there is no 

 other question connected with orcharding that will so arouse the feelings 

 of prejudice, of personal interest, and denunciation among propagators, 

 as a discussion of the relative value of the different methods of propaga- 

 ting trees. This of itself is sufficient evidence that this whole subject is 

 not well understood." 



The editor of the Country Gentleman says: 4 "After grafting many 

 thousands of different sorts [of pear] on various stocks, and seeing many 

 thousands of pears bear in orchards, we never saw as much change pro- 

 duced by the stock as was effected by soil and cultivation." 



The editor of the American Agriculturist says: 5 " It has been accep- 

 ted as a law by horticulturists, that the graft produces no effects upon the 

 stock into which it is inserted other than, it may be, to communicate 

 disease. A number of cases have been from time to time observed which 

 would go to show that there are exceptions to this rule." 



The editor of Vick's Magazine said: " It is a question that has often 

 been discussed, and there are some facts showing the stock in some cases 

 to have a perceptible influence on the produce of the graft, but we know 

 of no reliable experiments that have ever been conducted to throw light 

 on the subject. One thing is certain, the difference between the stock and 

 the graft must be very wide to produce any appreciable effect." 



feHANGE IN HABIT. 



The dwarfing of plants by grafting on certain stocks is so well known 



i Transactions Mass. Hort. Soc, 1879, p. 19. 



2 Transactions Illinois Horticultural Society, 1870, p. 314. 



3 Report Michigan Board of Agriculture, 1871, p. 128. 

 * Country Gentleman, 1881, p. 678. 



5 American Agriculturist, 1868, p. 260. 



6 Vick's Magazine, Vol. II, pp. 241, 242. 



