1300 



fruit crops and for some of our more important orna- 

 mentals like the rose. It recognizes that the whole 

 question of stocks is a broad and complex one and 

 that much work will need to be done to secure light 

 on the many questions involved. We are beginning to 

 appreciate more and more that our future successful 

 fruit culture is intimately associated with the prob- 

 lem of stocks. With the exception of the grape, no 

 far-reaching studies have been made on stocks in this 

 or any other country. We have followed certain em- 

 pirical practices in the past, but as competition be- 

 comes greater and the demand for the highest grades of 

 fruits and plant products increases, we must know 

 more of the actual relation of stocks to quality of 

 product, to the length of life of the tree or plant, 

 to adaptability to soil and climate, to resistance to 

 disease and insect attacks. 



The question of stocks would seem to resolve it- 

 self into two main groups of problems: (1) The prac- 

 ticability of producing in this country the millions 

 of ordinary apple, pear, plum, and cherry stocks which 

 hitherto have been largely secured abroad. (2) The 

 systematic study of stocks with a view to their im- 

 provement and their better adaptability to the wide 

 variety of conditions and needs that exist here and 

 are likely to develop in the future as our great fruit 

 industries become more complex. It is imperative that 

 if our fruit industries are to be maintained, there 

 must be full supplies of the usual or ordinary stocks. 

 The securing of special stocks is a long time process 

 and will have to proceed slowly and carefully, build- 

 ing up cantiously on the foundations we already have 

 and must maintain. 



Pear growing is not one of our paramount fruit 

 industries, yet it is safe to say with no other fruit 

 is there a greater proportion of trees lost each year 

 which must be replaced if normal production is to be 

 maintained. Fire blight is the chief cause of the 

 lose of pear trees in this country, and while it is 

 highly desirable to find stocks, or to develop stocks, 

 that may in a measure prevent some of the losses to 

 pear growers from fire blight, the pressing need is 

 to maintain the supplies of French and Japanese seed- 

 lings required to keep the number of trees up to nor- 

 mal. If stocks are to be produced in this country to 

 take the place of those hitherto secured abroad, it 

 would seem proper that efforts should be made by the 

 Government to aid those who are anxious to know where 



