114 STATE HORTICULTURAL SQCIETY. 



the roots." Benjamin Hathaway of Michigan says: 1 "Not only are 

 root-grafts of this [Northern Spy] certain to. root from the graft, but 

 when budded or grafted on seedlings it will develop in them a tendency 

 to form a great many fibrous roots." J. W- Talbot of Massachusetts, 

 said: 2 "If the Siberian Crab is grafted on any number of stocks the roots 

 will all run down." E. G. Paetkidge of Wisconsin, says in speaking of 

 grafting apples on the wild crab (Transactions Wisconsin Horticultural 

 Society, 1881-2, p. 38) : "If we start with the crab root we shall in time have 

 the top standing on its own roots, the old roots gradually dying out, or on 

 roots from which the original properties and characteristics have been 

 eliminated." A writer in the Horticulturist says: 3 "Upon removing 

 the plants from a bed of seedling Canada plums (the wild red plum of our 

 woods), about a hundred of which were budded last summer with the 

 Imperial Gage, Red Gage, end Jefferson plums, and which had made a 

 growth of four or five feet the present season, and were quite stocky, I 

 found that the amount of roots of the budded trees was less that half of 

 those remaining unbudded, and the color was a shade deeper. The Can- 

 ada plum is remarkable for the amount of roots which it emits, compared 

 with those of the domesticated plum; but in the case of these budded 

 trees, the roots seemed not to have increased from what they were prob- 

 ably last spring, while the tops were larger than those not budded." 

 James Parker of Mississippi, is quoted as saying:* "Plums grafted or 

 budded on the peach stock seem to undergo a different change. It is a 

 fact no less strange than true, that the borer appears to avoid the roots of 

 such trees; the bark and wood of the roots seem to become harder and 

 partake more of the nature of the plum. I find this to be a general rule. 

 I have hunted for the borer in the roots of such trees many times, and 

 could find none, while in neighboring peach trees they were abundant." 



Professor W. J. Beal of Michigan says: 5 "If we cut up a long root of 

 a seedling apple, and insert scions of different varieties, a part on each 

 root, the young trees which result from these grafts will have roots unlike 

 each other. The difference may be very slight or it may be very apparent, 

 The scion, then, influences the form of growth in the root. " Benjamin P. 

 Ware of Massachusetts is reported as follows: 6 "He supposed the 

 stocks in a nursery were all different, yet if we graft each row with a 

 different kind we shall find that the roots of each row have a uniform 

 character in regard to running down or spreading, having few or many 

 fibers, etc., showing that the scion affects the root of the stock." Mr. C. 

 M. Hovey of Boston ' doubted whether anyone could tell Winter Nelis 

 pear by its roots, as some had claimed. This variety does not grow as 

 strong as some others— the Vicar of Winkfield for instance — and in a 

 weak-growing tree the roots will be proportionally weak. 



earliness. 



Does the stock affect the time of ripening of the fruit produced by the 

 graft? Knight believed that grafted fruits generally ripen somewhat 

 earlier than the same varieties on their own roots, but considered it due 



» Report Michigan State Board of Agriculture, 1871, p. 127. 



2 Transactions Massachusetts Horticultural society, 1879, p. 18. 



3 Vol. I, 1846, p. 290. 



* Horticulturist, 1873, p. 179. 



5 Report Michigan Board of Agriculture, 1876, p. 203. 



e Transactions Massachusetts Horticultural society, 1879, p. 17. 



' Transactions Massachusetts Horticultural Bociety, 1880, p. 114. 



