March 20, 186fi. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOKTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



215 



that of the (irape Viue, which under favourable circumstances 

 sends out roots innumerable into the tempting humid atmo- 

 sphere. But more on this head when the subject of stocks has 

 been adverted to. 



It would be dilfieult to trace back the history of the stocks 

 that have been at times recommended for our ordinary fruits. 

 The Peach and Almond lor the Peach, Quince and White 

 Thorn for the Pear, and the Paradise Apple for the Apple, must 

 assuredly have been tried lonp ago, and by successive writers 

 and practitioners recommended at varioiis times in preference 

 to the stocks most generally in use. Now, though foreigners, 

 especially Americans, say we are slow at availing ourselves of 

 advantages within our reach, assuredly if the stocks above 

 named had possessed superior merit to those they were tried 

 against, there is, and has been, sufficient discernment in the 

 cultivators of these fruits to perceive it, and these stocks 

 would have made their way into general use long ago. How- 

 ever, these stocks are not the most generally used at the 

 present day, and it behoves us to find some solution as to, in 

 schoolboy phrase, " the reason why." 



Commencing with the Peach — I well remember the time 

 when the Peach stock was hailed as a step in the right direction, 

 and was expected to do wonders, the knotty protuberance so 

 manifest in most Peach trees worked on the Plum stock, was 

 an eyesore said to give way when a Peach stock was substituted, 

 and I have certainly seen some fine trees so grown, but by-and- 

 by it was whispered about that now and then such a tree would 

 fall into ill-health, and in spite of its being supported by one 

 of its own kin, death would overtake it at an early age. The 

 Almond, I believe, was still more liable to this misfortune, and 

 though trees on both stocks may occasionally be met with, they 

 are not in sufficient number, nor in such a healthy and vigorous 

 state as to warrant the general adoption of these stocks. The 

 reason of the Peach stock not answering would seem to be its 

 inability to perfect itself and the variety worked on it in our 

 cold soiJs, and in the dull summers of this country ai compared 

 with those of its native land, while the Plum, being probably 

 indigenous, performs the task better. Local circumstances, 

 doubtless, modify these results, and some places favour the 

 growth of the Peach stock ; but as a rule these places are few, 

 and there are, perhaps, fewer trees worked in this way now 

 than twenty years ago. 



Taking the Pear next, the comparative merits of the Pear 

 and Quince stocks ought not to be judged by the same standard 

 as that which guided the decision in the case of the Peach, for 

 both are hardy. I will say nothing of the Pear on the White 

 Thorn, Moimtain Ash, and other stocks on which it is said to 

 be grown, but most generally as an object of curiosity, but will 

 proceed to the merits of the two stocks on which the tree is 

 most commonly worked, and on which the controversy has 

 lately turned, and endeavour to offer some solution of this 

 knotty question. In the first place, let us examine the two 

 plants as they generally present themselves, and, reasoning from 

 that, the truth may, perhaps, be arrived at. On examining the 

 two what a difference will be perceived in their growth, that 

 was not before thought of. In this county both fruits, espe- 

 cially the Pear, are gi'own somewhat extensively. The Quince 

 is certainly not so much grown in this neighbourhood, and 

 only now and then a tree is met with until we travel a few 

 miles farther, and then this fruit is seen in all its glorj-. 

 Now, it is not my intention by any means to condemn the 

 Quince as a stock for the Pear, on the contrary, there are some 

 cases in which most likely it may be used with advantage. I 

 am, nevertheless, of opinion that there is no instance in which 

 a Pear so worked has produced anything like the quantity of 

 fruit it has done when grown on a stock of its own kind. The 

 Quince seems altogether of more limited growth, and in no case 

 when I have seen it has it approached the majestic growth of 

 the Pear tree, when on a stock better suited to its requirements. 

 Taking the quantity of fruit that full-sized trees of each kind 

 may be said to produce, I have in no instance seen a Quince 

 tree yield more than one-fourth of what the Pear will do, and 

 this is a wide difference. Certainly this immediate district 

 favours the Pear tree more than the Quince, but I have not 

 heard of the latter assuming anything like the proportions of 

 the former in any place where it is grown. 



It is just, therefore, to assume that the Quince is of humbler 

 growth, and, consequently, more likely to check the growth of 

 what it has to support than to augment it, and as such may 

 be more useful when trees are grown in a dwarfed or stimted 

 condition, as small pyramids, or against low trellises, walls, or 

 tho like, instead of assuming the lofty proportions and vigor- 



ous condition that would result from the tree being worked on 

 a stock of its own kind ; but this condition of things is also 

 modified in other places, where it is possible that the Quince 

 may be of service ; for the Pear and Quince do not by any 

 means both like the same soil, and here is the secret of much 

 of that difference of results which is sometimes attributed to 

 mere opinion. The Quince grown as an independent fruit 

 tree thrives best in a damp place, say by the side of a ditch, or 

 in a similar position not too dry nor light. The Pear, on the 

 contrary, seems to thrive best on a dry stony soil that will allow 

 its roots to descend to a good depth, and still to find nourish- 

 meut in the open stratum through which they pass, the whole 

 being free from all stagnant water, and ready to receive any 

 amount of rainfall without showing much difference at top. 

 Such a soil is the one in the immediate neighbourhood of thia 

 place, where the Pear is to some extent cultivated, though not 

 to the same degi'ee as the Plum, Apple, and Filbert. Still 

 there are many thousands of bushels grown in favourable 

 years at no great distance from us, and these are mostly pro- 

 duced on large standard trees on stocks of their own kind, with 

 trunks a foot or more in diameter, and scarcely showing any 

 signs of ever having been worked, the stock and scion keeping 

 pace with each other. I will not say how many sieves repoii; 

 has given credit for one of these large trees yielding in a 

 favourable season, but the produce is said to exceed that of 

 any Apple tree. The fruit of the Quince may veiy often be all 

 gathered without the use of a ladder, the trees being so low; 

 but then I am not certain the Pear tree would not be small in 

 such a place also ; therefore, we must not confuse the relative 

 position of the tiees, but, taking the matter in its broadest 

 sense of competitive merit, ask whether the Pear grown on the 

 Quince stock in the most favourable situation for that stock, or 

 the Pear grown on its own stock in its most suitable position, 

 produces the more fruit of good quality. I, for one, have no 

 hesitation in giving the palm of merit to tho latter ; other 

 growers may, perhaps, think differently. Wiat is here stated 

 may, perhaps, provoke discussion ; if so, let it be of that 

 courteous kind which becomes the calling in which we are all 

 engaged. 



Jly remarks on the Pear having been extended further than 

 I purposed, but Uttle will be said on the Paradise stock for the 

 Apple. Its only merit, so far as I could ever learn, is, that it 

 tends to dwarf the growth of the variety grafted upon it. 

 Some of its admirers assume that trees on the Paradise begin 

 to bear sooner, but that is questionable, and most certainly a 

 smaller quantity of fruit is produced on a given number of 

 trees of, say, ten years old, of this kind than by those on 

 other stocks, when the advantages are aUke ; and possibly in 

 cases in which the trees supported ou the Paradise stock do so 

 well, this result is due to the soil and situation favouring 

 that variety. I imagine, however, that it is not the same 

 sort of soil as that mentioned as being the best for the Quince, 

 but, on the contrary, a dry soil ; yet ou this point I am by no 

 means certain, for I have had little experience with the 

 Paradise stock, and have yet to learn any advantages it pos- 

 sesses over the more common Crab. The desire for novelty and 

 a wish to have something different from their neighbours are 

 inherent in many persons, and these feelings are laudable too 

 in their way ; they have at various times during the last fifty 

 years called the Paradise stock into notice, but it has never to 

 my knowledge made that figure iu the world that its antagonist 

 has done, and for every basketful so produced, some waggon- 

 loads may be set down on the other side ; therefore, unless as 

 above stated for some special purpose, the use of the Paradise 

 stock is not advisable. It may, nevertheless, be worthy of 

 notice from those who prefer a single fruit to a bushel of 

 the same obtained in the common way, and such persons are 

 justified in riding their hobbies as hard as they like, but the 

 market basket would be long in being filled by this plan, and 

 that after all is, perhaps, the truo way of looking at the matter. 



With regard to planting fruit trees so deeply in the ground 

 as to bury the part worked 4 or 5 inches under the surface. 

 and induce the upper portion to emit roots, no better argument 

 could be used against working at all ; but, independently of 

 that, is not planting so deeply bad practice ? In general shallow 

 planting is recommended, everywhere I might almost say, and 

 to reverse this merely to induce the formation of roots where 

 none existed before will no doubt effect that object, but that 

 does not by any means justify the means adopted. Within a 

 mUe of wliere I now write, there are hundreds of Apple and 

 Cherry trees that have been planted on the surface and the 

 soii heaped on the roots, making a mound of about half a cart- 



