224 PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 



STOCKS FOR FEUIT TREES. 



The stocks principally employed in propagating fruit 

 trees of temperate and semi-tropical climates are as 

 follows : 



THE ALMOND. Seedling Peach or Plum stocks are 

 preferred. Seedlings of the hard-shelled Almond will 

 answer equally as well as the Peach. The Plum makes the 

 best stock for trees to be cultivated on moist or clay soils, 

 and it is also less liable to the attacks of insects and dis- 

 eases, but does not grow so large, and there is danger of 

 the Almond overgrowing and dying through what may 

 be termed strangulation, unless very large-growing varie- 

 ties and species of the Plum are employed as stocks. 



APPLE. Seedling stocks are always preferred for gen- 

 .eral use for orchards, and those raised from ungrafted or 

 wildings of the European species (Pirus Malus) are best. 

 Stocks for the different varieties of the Siberian Crab 

 Apples (P. prunifolia), may be of the same species, or 

 seedlings of the wild American Crab Apple (P. coronaria 

 and P. angustifolia), but those of the common European 

 Apple are most extensively employed for all the culti- 

 vated species. 



For dwarfing the Apple where low bushes or espalier 

 training is desired, the Doucin and Paradise stocks are 

 employed, these being low-growing varieties of the Pirus 

 Malus. These stocks are raised by cuttings, or by bank- 

 ing up around the sprouts, which spring up around the 

 base of large stems of plants which have been previously 

 headed back for the purpose of producing them. 



APRICOT. Seedling Plum stocks, or those raised from 

 cuttings, are usually employed in propagating the im- 

 proved varieties of the Apricot. In mild climates both 

 Apricot and Peach seedlings are sometimes used. 



CHERRY (Oerasus). For large, standard trees, seed- 

 ling stocks of the wild Mazzard Cherry of Europe (Cera- 



