196 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



ion, and its individuality must be entirely changed before it 

 can proceed farther or add to the growth of the stock and 

 roots. Two branches on opposite sides of the point of union 

 between the stock and graft, and so near together as to crowd 

 upon each other, will maintain their individual characters. 

 One branch may produce a sour apple, while the other will 

 produce sweet fruit ; one may produce early and the other 

 winter fruit; one branch may grow a quince, and the other a 

 pear, or the stock may produce a peach, while the graft may 

 bear a cherry. In no case is there any mixing of blood nor 

 any mingling of parts, and trees multiplied from the buds of 

 either will produce after their original type, without any 

 apparent variation. 



There is, however, one very marked effect produced by the 

 graft upon the stock which should not pass unnoticed, and 

 that is the ability of the graft or bud to cause the roots of the 

 stock upon which it is growing to conform to its own peculiar 

 habits of growth. "We find in digging up nursery trees, where 

 all the different varieties have been worked on the same stock 

 and have been cultivated alike, that each variety of trees have 

 caused the stocks to assume many of its own peculiar habits 

 of growth. Examples : The Greening and Talman's Sweet- 

 ing are found to grow upon a few very strong and straggling 

 roots ; the Spy and Bellflower will be provided with an abund- 

 ance of roots, penetrating deep in the soil, similar to a standard 

 Pear. The Swaar will have feeble roots, mostly growing on 

 one side, corresponding to the growth of the tree itself, while 

 the Crab apple will be found to grow upon very strong roots 

 reaching out in all directions from the trunks. As a rule the 

 growth of the roots is found to correspond with the growth of 

 the top. In grafting a grown-up tree with another variety of 

 fruit, the roots of the stock in this ccse have become estab- 

 lished according to its particular habits of growth, and they 

 cannot be changed so far as they have already grown, but when 

 the new top commences to grow the roots will assume much 



