MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF THE STOCK AND GRAFT. 127 



of the fruit red, and the flavor near that of the wild cherry, viz.: bitter. 

 Another time I took scions of an Early May cherry, and grafted part of 

 them on Mazzard stocks. When the trees came into bearing the fruit was 

 so different that each kind might have been called a different variety from 

 the other." 



The editor of the Revue Horticole records in that journal for 1889, 

 page 515, that upon a Bigarreau Esperen cherry, a crisp, late variety, was 

 grafted the Heart variety, Rouge de Mai, wliich is very early and bears 

 nearly hemispherical, not crisp but very sweet, fruit. The fruits borne by 

 the grafts, however, were more elongated, strongly crisp and relatively 

 acerb. 



Regarding citrus fruits, Dr. E. L. Sturtevant ' quotes from the Report 

 of the Southern California Horticultural Society, Vol. II, page 78, a report 

 of a committee of that society upon the result of budding the Navel 

 orange on the citron, lime, and China lemon, in which it.was stated that 

 in each case the fruit showed marked and distinct characteristics derived 

 from the stocks. 



B. M. Lelong, in his " Citrus Culture in California," 1888, page 77, says 

 of the Chinese lemon: "This variety was extensively cultivated in Cali- 

 fornia as a stock for budding the orange upon. This practice was soon 

 abandoned, for it was found by practical experience that the fruit grown 

 upon it was very coarse and sour. ' ' The root is not strong 



enough to hold the weight of the top made by the orange," and soon 

 begins to decay. 



The same author states (p. 82): "It has been claimed that if the lemon 

 he budded on anything but lemon stock, the lemons will lose their elon- 

 gated shape, and that they will become roundish, especially if budded on 

 the orange. I have often observed roundish lemons on trees budded on 

 orange stock, but they are so few that it is hardly noticeable. 

 The quality of the lemon on orange stock can not be surpassed." 



In the Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for 1879, 

 page 23, Mr. J. W. Talbot said that he saw in the newspapers a statement 

 that in Florida oranges grafted on wild stocks revert to the wild form in a 

 few years. 



In the same connection, page 32, Mr. H. Merriman states that in 

 Florida the Indian River orange grows true from seed, while the inferiority 

 of many kinds there grown is due to budding on the wild orange, on 

 which the trees come into bearing earlier and are more hardy. The fruit 

 of grafts on these sour oranges depreciates, he says, with age, and the 

 oldest orchards he had seen had given the poorest fruit. In the Trans- 

 actions of the same society for 1880, pages 174-6, Messrs. E. H. and W. 

 S. Hart of Florida deny that improved varieties of the orange deterio- 

 rate in quality as a result of budding on the sour orange. The former 

 gentleman also states that the Indian River oranges owe their superiority, 

 not to the fact of their being a single superior variety, but largely to the 

 congenial soil and climate, which improves the quality of various 

 varieties there grown. 



The U. S. Department of Agriculture recently sent a circular to orange- 

 growers in Florida, inquiring as to the comparative value of sweet and 

 sour stock for oranges. A few replies stated that the quality was better 

 on the sweet stock, and a few that it was better on the sour stock, but 

 most of the leading growers had noticed no difference in the quality of 

 the fruit from the different stocks. 



1 Transactions Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 1SS0, p. 95. 



