656 THE FRUIT INDUSTRY ix XEW YORK STATE 



must be taken than in the past, with the consequent employment 

 of a better type of labor at a higher salary, in order that the con- 

 fidence necessary between the purchaser and the producer of 

 nursery stock be maintained. 



OUR SEEDLIXGS 



A century ago seedling apple trees were grown in Xew York, 

 and whatever the fruit proved to be it was used either for con- 

 sumption or cider. Today, we plant definite varieties. Xursery- 

 men, however, use seedlings as roots for these varieties, and the 

 characters of these are unknown. The so-called French Crab 

 seedlings are the young plants raised from seeds. collected from 

 native fruits found growing in France, just as we might collect 

 from our wild seedlings in Xew York. Some of these seedlings 

 are strong growers, others are w r eak ; some make good unions with 

 the variety put upon them, others "unite poorly. We have not 

 standardized our roots ; but, as soon as we get more data, this will 

 probably be the next advance. 



We find that some interesting relationships exist ; for instance, 

 the Twenty Ounce makes a more rapid growth when top-worked 

 on Baldwin than it does on Xorthern Spy. I believe Tolmaii 

 Sweet to be a better trunk than Spy. Wealthy does not grow 

 well on R. I. Greening, although R. I. Greening grows well on 

 Wealthy. Some of the apple seedlings we use for roots are quite 

 susceptible to fire blight, and this is particularly true in the case 

 of the French pear seedlings we use for our pears. The Myro- 

 balan plum we use is but moderately satisfactory for plums. The 

 Mazzard cherry is the best root for sweet cherries. The Doucin 

 and Paradise apple stocks are propagated by layers, .and peach 

 stocks are usually grown from southern peach pits. 



The root is half the tree. Some of our productive individual 

 trees are such, very probably because they are on roots which 

 are efficient providers. The man who first discovers why a cer- 

 tain tree is more efficient than its neighbor can revolutionize the 

 fruit-growing business, for it is a positive fact that there is as 

 high a percentage of boarder fruit trees in our orchards as cows 

 in our herds. Why ? The nurseryman needs to know ; it is his 

 problem as well as the orchardists. 



