222 PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 



supposed to be difficult to graft in other ways, was very 

 extensively employed by nurserymen. Seedling stocks 

 were planted around a large or medium-sized tree, and 

 near enough to allow the branches to conveniently reach 

 the stock when ready for use, at which time they were 

 inarched, afterwards severed, and the stocks taken up 

 and removed to the nursery rows. The tinje for inarch- 

 ing trees in the open air, is in spring, at the usual season 

 for grafting, but if grown under glass, the operation may 

 be performed whenever the plants are growing or are 

 about to commence growth. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

 SELECTING STOCKS. 



In the propagation of plants by budding and grafting, 

 the selection of the proper kind of stock is quite as im- 

 portant as knowing how to utilize it afterwards. The 

 most skilled propagator cannot produce the best nor even 

 satisfactory results with poor stocks and cions. A feeble 

 cion may revive and make a fair or even first-rate plant if 

 set in a^und^aji^ vigorous stok, but if the stock is poor, 

 the result Is usually unsatisfactory, for in this case we 

 build upon a feeble and unstable foundation. 



It is not only desirable to secure stocks of closely allied 

 species, but those that are young, vigorous, and well sup- 

 plied with fibrous roots, for it is the small roots that first 

 imbibe nutriment from the soil, as well as the first to 

 emit additional fibres to assist in increasing the supply. 



As a rule, seedling stocks are preferred to those raised 

 from cuttings, although there are a few exceptions, and 

 the " wilding," as it is termed, is usually the most hardy 

 and least subject to disease. The so-called improved, 



