170 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Mr. Carpenter. — As a further illustration of the theory that 

 the stock does not materially affect the fruit, I will mention that 

 the pear is grafted upon the quince, the thorn, and the mountain 

 ash, these stocks being used to dwarf the pear, but the character 

 of the fruit is not materially altered. The only effect is that the 

 dwarfed trees attain their full growth much earlier than the 

 standard trees, and are therefore sooner prepared to develope all 

 the qualities of the fruit. We obtain in from three to five years 

 such fruit as the pear stock will require ten or fifteen years to 

 produce. The pear on the pear stock will generally bear speci- 

 men's in a few years, but while it is perfecting the tree, and 

 rapidly growing, the fruit will not be as fine as after it has 

 reached its full size. I have used the Paradise and Doucin 

 stock to dwarf the apple, but I never could see any difference in 

 the flavor of the apples produced. 



Dr. Trimble. — I have grafted plums upon the common hedge 

 plum and the only bad effect was that the stock was short-lived 

 and the graft outgrew it. I could see no difference in the plums. 

 Again, as an experiment, I inoculated a number of peach trees 

 upon these natural red hedge plum stocks. Some of these trees 

 lived long enough to bear peaches ; and although nothing can be 

 more unlike than the hedge plum and the peach, I could see no 

 difference in the peaches. I grafted 120 or more varieties of 

 plums upon the hedge plum, but by the time they were ready to 

 bear I found that I could raise apricots as readily as plums, and 

 I turned every one of these plum trees into an apricot tree, 

 inoculating them with the peach apricot from Italy. I gathered 

 several crops of apricots from them and I saw no difference in 

 the fruit. 



Mr. Burgess.-— Nobody in England would use the peach as a 

 stock for the peach or apricot. Nothing will give the apricot or 

 peach so fine a quality as to bud it upon the muscle plum. I 

 think that the great reason why peaches fail in this country is 

 because they are upon their own roots. I think if they were 

 grafted upon the muscle plum it would be a great acquisition. 



Mr. Pardee.— -That is becoming common in Western New York. 

 I have grafted the pear upon the apple. The grafts would grow 

 tolerably well but would never produce much fruit. With the 

 quince it assimilates very nearly. The whole virtue of the graft- 

 ing process lies in the terminal bud which will push out as far as 

 you choose to let it go. In pinching trees the object is to throw 



