310 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XIX. 



fairly tried it proves to be of all stocks yet known the hardiest, 

 most dwarfing in its effects, and most powerful in inducing early 

 fertility. This stock, which has been characterised in England as 

 a thing quite worthless, will, if planted in the coldest and wettest 

 of soils, instead of sending long roots down into the sour clayey 

 earth like the Crab and in a lesser degree the Doucin, keep its 

 wig-like mass of small roots near the surface, and without root- 

 pruning bear fruit long before the others. That is the way to 

 best test its powers of withstanding cold, and the other merits 

 claimed for it : on all ordinarily rich and cool soils it will be 

 found to succeed perfectly without root-pruning of any kind. 

 Growers have only to try it to prove that instead of dying in our 

 cool climate, and on our moist soils, its general adoption will lead 

 to marked improvement. It is necessary to observe that in 

 trying this stock healthy plants should be secured to begin with. 

 It has been ascertained that some of our nurserymen who have 

 tried this stock import the Paradise from France in a very small 

 state, and then graft it soon after it arrives. The consequence is 

 that the little trees have no power to push forth a healthy graft. 

 If imported in this state they should be allowed one year's growth 

 before being grafted. 



Thinking that experienced growers in the colder parts of North 

 America might be able to throw some light on the hardiness of 

 this stock, I wrote to Mr. J. J. Thomas, a pomologist of long 

 and deserved repute, author of a standard book on fruit-culture, 

 and pomological editor of the Albany ' Cultivator,' who replied 

 as follows : — " The French Paradise stock grows well with us on 

 strong soils, with suitable pruning and cultivation. Neglected, 

 and on light soils, it frequently fails after a lapse of several 

 years. The oldest trees with which I am acquainted in western 

 New York are on the grounds of Ellwanger & Barry, at Rochester. 

 Trees which have been worked on it thirty years old still possess 

 a fair degree of vigour, having stems six inches to eight inches in 

 diameter, and the trees are about eight feet high, with about the 

 same extent of branches. Twelve-year-old trees are five feet or 

 six feet high, and four inches or five inches in diameter. On my 

 own grounds, which are a strong clay-loam, trees which have 

 been planted twenty-five years are seven inches in diameter at 

 the base, and are about ten feet high, with ten feet spread of top. 



