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INFLUENCE OF THE STOCK ON THE OllAFT. 



I N F L U E N r E F 'I' HE STOCK OX Til !•: (i U A F T . 



BY U. BUIbT, rillLADELl'UIA. 



URELY, the study of horlicultnre in its various do- 

 tails, is one of the most beautiful that the mind of 

 can be engaged upon. I do not allude to that 

 elfervesccnt study given to it by nurserymen 

 Vk'lio are ever on the streteli for ]»oiinds, shil- 

 lings, and ])enec, but to that cool, deliberate 

 ^ study of a student — that shutting out of every- 

 1 thing except the scientific results of an inqiur- 

 v^ ing, cool, deliberate mind. A few years ago, 

 it was for tlie pear tlie quince stock only, and 

 then the next move was the Angers Quince, 

 the Pyramidal Quince, &c. Now, in 1857, tliere 

 appears a reaction, and all pears must be on pear 

 stock. We are strange in our ideas, few really 

 thinking and acting on their own pure opinion ; 

 they take for granted that others are right. About five 

 years ago, in an article for one of our periodicals (by my- 

 self), I advanced the opinion that the proper method of 

 preparing the stock for a fruitful and persistent tree, was 

 to remove it frequently before it was planted into the or- 

 chard. It would no doubt increase the cost from the nursery, but it would cer- 

 tainly be cheaper to tlie purchaser, in the safety and fruitfulness of the tree. I 

 am not over the mark if I say that one-third of all the fruit-trees die within three 

 years of their removal from the nursery. I very much question if there are a 

 fourth of those trees plauted with any degree of knowledge, from the fact that 

 the planter does not know, from reasoning or thought, how a tree should be de- 

 posited into the ground: even with a printed guide before him, he goes astray. 

 If they grow, he takes the credit ; if they die, the broad-backed nurseryman is to 

 blame. I find, however, by impulse, I am going from my subject of the influence 

 of the stock upon the scion or graft. 



In my movements last season, I was called upon to visit a grapery where nearly 

 all the vines "had been killed by some wash given them by the gardener." (Poor 

 gardeners, they are always committing some unpardonable sin.) The house was 

 new, and a good one. I was certainly struck, on beholding all (except three) of 

 the vines cut down to very near the ground. Before I expressed any opinion, I 

 observed that the wash had only finished the work. The vines had been allowed 

 to remain to the rafter all winter, and had been killed by the frost and sun. But 

 how did the three remain ? you will say. On close ins})ectiou, I found they had 

 been grafted or inarched upon our native grape ; those three, and none other, 

 had been operated upon. This fact was not new to me, though it was before me 

 in a new feature. Every planter and practical man should hold before them, in 

 large letters, that a hardy stock assists jnaking a hardy tree. Gardeners about 

 Philadelphia, and south of it, do not invariably take the precaution to take down 

 their vines, and cover them with dry material, to resist the cold and sun. Where 

 it is not done, vines are split from top to bottom, fruiting buds killed, and fre- 

 quently the whole or half the crop is lost. A little forethought, and six hours' 

 — labor do I say? no, pleasure is the proper term — pleasure to feel that your 

 and coming crop are safe, even with the thermometer at 30^ below zero 



