PROPAGATION OF VARIETIES. 29 



grow, it is found to thrive admirably budded on the Ahnond. We have 

 aU-eady mentioned that in clay soils too heavy and moist for the Peach, 

 it succeeds very well if worked on the Plum. M. Floss, a Prussia)! 

 gardcuicr, succeeded in growing tine pears in veiy sandy soils, whei'c it 

 was nearly impossible to raise them before, by grafting them on the 

 JNIountain Ash, a nearly related tree, which thrives on the driest and 

 lightest soil. 



A variety of fruit which is found rather tender for a certain climate, 

 or a particular neighborhood, is frequently acclimatized by grafting it on 

 a native stock of very hardy habits. Thus near the sea-coast, where the 

 finer plums thrive badly, we have seen them greatly improved by being 

 worked on the beech-plum, a native stock adajjted to the spot ; and the 

 foreign grape is more luxuriant when grafted on our native stocks. 



A slight eftect is sometimes produced by the stock on the quality of 

 the fruit. A few sorts of pear are superior in flavor, but many are also 

 inferior, when grafted on the Quince, while they are moi'e gritty on the 

 thoru. The Green Gage, a Plum of great delicacy of flavor, varies con- 

 siderably upon diftereat stocks; and Apples I'aised on the crab, and pears 

 on the Mountain Ash, are said to keep longer than when grown on their 

 own roots. 



In addition to the foregoing, a diseased stock should always be 

 avoided, as it will communicate disease slowly to the graft, unless the 

 latter is a variety of sufiicient vigor to renew the health of the stock, 

 which is but seldom the case. 



The cultivator will gather from these remarks that, in a favorable 

 climate and soil, if we desire the greatest growth, duration, and develop- 

 ment in any fruit (and this applies to orchards generally), we should 

 choose a stock of a closely similar nature to the graft— an apple 

 seedling for an apple ; a pear seedling for a pear. If we desire dwarf 

 trees that come into bearing very young, and take little space in a gar- 

 den, we employ for a stock an allied species of slower growth. If our 

 soil or climate is unfavoi^able, we use a stock which is adapted to the 

 soil, or which Avill, by its hardier roots, endure the cold. 



The iajluence of the graft on the stock seems scarcely to extend be- 

 yond the power of communicating disease. A graft taken from a tree 

 enfeebled by disease will recover with difficidty, even if grafted on 

 healthy stocks for a dozen times in repeated siiccession. And when the 

 disease is an inhei-ent or hereditary one, it will certainly communicate it 

 to the stock. We have seen the yellows, from a diseased peach-tree, 

 propngated through hundreds of individuals by budding, and the stock 

 and graft both perish togetlier from its eftects. Hence the imjDortauce, 

 to nurserymen especially, of securing healthy grafts, and working only 

 upon healthy stocks. 



J*ro2'}agatlon hy Cuttings. 



I*ropagating by cuttings, as applied to fruit-trees, consists in causing 

 a shoot of the previous season's wood to grow, by detaching it from the 

 parent tree at a suitable season, and planting it in the gi-ound under fa- 

 vorable circumstances. 



In this case, instead of uniting itself by Avoody matter to another 

 tree, as does the scion in grafting, the descending woody matter becomes 

 roots at the lower end, and the cutting of which is then a new and entii-e 



