14 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



I January, 



bedders. I had them planted out fully exposed 

 to the sun, and they never burned. The yellow 

 variety is dwarf and bushy, the other not so 

 much so. Give your opinion of them through 

 the Monthly and greatly oblige." 



[The Coleuses are very good, but the full 

 value for bedding will have to be decided by 

 competition with others already known. — Ed. 

 G. M.l 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



PLUM STOCKS FOR PEACH TREES. 



BY W. C. STRONG, BRIGHTON, MASS. 



As you invite testimony on this question in 

 your November number, I give my limited expe- 

 rience. The growth of Myrobolan stocks is so 

 vigorous that I was tempted to bud the peach 

 upon it, three years since. The buds have taken 

 only fairly well, and the subsequent growth has 

 disappointed me. The stocks have been on 

 heavy and also on upland soil. Though I do 

 not yet abandon the trial, yet the indications are 

 not favorable for a vigorous and healthy growth. 

 On the other hand, the white and pink almond 

 and Prunus triloba, as also the varieties of plum, 

 make a very strong growth on this stock. This 

 season, I have budded into the Damson and St. 

 Julien stocks, but as yet cannot report results. 

 These experiments have been made on a consid- 

 erable number of stocks, in order to arrive at a 

 definite conclusion. For it has seemed to me 

 rejasonable to expect that the plum stock would 

 give exemption from the fungus which we call 

 yellows, and also might give us a more perma- 

 nent tree, and in heavier soils than the peach 

 stock will thrive in. Considering the common 

 European practice of budding upon the Muscle 

 stock, it is surprising that this question has not 

 long since been tested and decided in this coun- 

 try. It seems to me that no other question in 

 fruit culture is so important, at the present time, 

 as this. If we can find a plum stock which 

 suits the peach, and will give us exemption from 

 this greatest drawback to peach culture, the yel- 

 lows, and may possibly add some other advan- 

 tages, then indeed shall we make an immense 

 advance in our art. I can think of no field so 

 encouraging for experiment. In this connection, 

 and as a warning to make haste slowly, and also 

 because I owe it to the public, I must state that 



my experiments in budding the pear upon a 

 strong seedling of Cydonia (or Pyrus) japonica 

 have proved disappointing. The buds grew well 

 the first season, and some varieties have con- 

 tinued to grow for the second and third seasons. 

 But, the indications are plain, after several years 

 of extensive trial, that there is a want of con- 

 geniality between the stock and the cion. Of 

 course, everybody is now wise enough to see 

 that a Pyrus communis will not thrive on a Py- 

 rus japonica seedling, however strong it may be. 

 Well, I am content to be a martyr for, the public 

 good. For one, I confess that I did not know 

 until the trial was made. 



PLUM STOCKS FOR THE PEACH. 



BY H. F. HILLENMEYER, LEXINGTON, KY. 



I notice an inquiry from " A.," Union Springs 

 N. Y., as to the value of plum stocks in the pro- 

 pagation of the peach. 



Eight or ten years ago we worked a small lot 

 on native and imported stocks, part of which 

 were sold, and part planted on our own grounds. 

 Of ten varieties planted in our own orchard, all 

 are gone, except two Oldmixon Free trees. None 

 of the trees did well. The growth was dwarfed, 

 and the crops, though full, were inferior. The 

 fruit, in quality, did not compare with that of 

 the same variety grown on our peach roots. The 

 trees were not altogether exempt from the borer; 

 none developed a tendency to the yellows, but 

 seemed to perish from an unsuitability of the 

 stock. 



Some of these trees, planted on tenacious 

 clay, deemed unsuitable for the peach, on its 

 own root, have done no better. The same ex- 

 periment, made by my father, twenty years be- 

 fore, on different soil, developed exactly the 

 same results. Peach on its own root does well 

 here, and if pruned and kept free of worms will 

 generally last twenty or twenty-five years. 



