THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 455 



begets like," "Race is everything," "A chip of the old block" and 

 "Like father, like son." Heredity in the light of science, is a tight 

 compactment into which new characters seldom find a way. The multi- 

 tude of trees in any variety, all from one seed, it seems paradoxical to 

 say, are morphologically one individual. How, then, can the differences 

 between individual plants in every orchard in the land be explained? 



Ample explanation, it seems to me, is found in "nurture" without 

 invoking a change in "nature" to account for the innumerable varia- 

 tions in orchards. Soil, sunlight, moisture, insects, disease, and last 

 but not least the stock which supports the tree, thase with many 

 other factors, give every individual plant an environment of its own 

 from which come characters which appear and disappear Avith the 

 individual. Thus, I am sure, we can bend a variety by means of a 

 stock ; but I should be the last one in the world to hold that we could 

 permanently mold it into any new form given it by a stock. Let go 

 the force, whatever it may be, which temporarily bends a variety, and 

 it snaps back into its same old self. 



One more generalization and I am ready to conclude. In the refine- 

 ment of fruit growing that is coming we must breed the stock as we now 

 do the variety which it supports. The stocks of apples, pears, peaches, 

 plums, cherries — all tree-fruits — are supposed to be seedlings of wild 

 species which we know vary much le.ss than do seedlings of cultivated 

 varieties. Yet it requires only a cursory investigation into the growing 

 of nursery stock at home or abroad to find that apple and pear seed 

 from the cider press and pits of stone fruits from canneries are com- 

 monly used in growing nursery stocks. Under present methods it is 

 mere chance, a throw of the dice, as to whether one gets a tree on a 

 good stock or a bad one. Would it not be a safe stroke of business for 

 a nurseryman to select his stocks and through his catalog educate fruit 

 growers as to the greater value of trees on selected stocks? 



What is the practical application of this necessarily discursive dis- 

 cussion? I had thought to give you somewhat specifically the faults 

 and merits of the various stocks for the several fruits. This I find to 

 be impossible. No one man's experience with stocks is sufficient to 

 enable him to speak authoritatively on the subject, and in the present 

 chaotic condition of our knowledge of stocks it would be a job for Job 

 to start out and classify the contradictory opinions of the multitude 

 who have expressed themselves on stocks in the horticultural literature 

 of the past three or four centuries. The .somewhat random and rather 

 fragmentary thoughts which I have been able to give you may be 

 summed up briefly for practical application as follows: 



The future of fruit culture is bound up with the nature of the stock. 

 The stock modifies the stature of plants; suits them to the soil and to 

 the climate ; influences f ruitfulness ; changes the time of maturity, size, 

 color and flavor of the fruit ; and affects the length of life of the trees. 

 The stock, too, is influenced by the scion. The method of growing the 

 stock, whether from cuttings or from seeds, is important. The effects 

 of the stock on the scion, appreciable though they are, do not change the 

 identity of a variety and are not heritable. If these arguments are well 

 taken we can only conclude that fruit growers and nurserymen must 

 give the question of stocks much more careful thought to the end, I am 

 sure, that we shall thus secure more fruitful orchards. 



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