GENERAL PRACTICE STOCKS AND THEIR INFLUENCE. 109 



on the other a weak variety, we find the quince stock of the strong pear growing faster 

 than the stock on which the weak pear is established, and, indeed, we get wood of a 

 quince on which a pear is growing freely, much thicker than any quince would ever 

 grow in the same time. So far as growth is concerned, then, the bud or graft has an 

 influence on the stock. If we graft the upper part of an apple or pear tree of weak 

 growth with a strong-growing variety, allowing the lower branches to remain, the growth 

 of the strong grower is very strong, and that strength is communicated for several inches 

 below it. On one of the branches growing just below the union the following year 

 clean and good fruit is borne, all the rest of the tree producing cracked worthless fruit 

 as heretofore : thus the branch has acquired a change of condition and received support 

 from the strong-growing parts of the graft above it. 



The character of the wood of trees is not changed by grafting. The quince stock 

 on which a pear is grafted remains a quince, and the pear established on it remains a 

 pear, but they exert an influence on each other, which cultivators turn to their advan- 

 tage. The moment that an inserted bud or graft commences to granulate and unite 

 with the stock, from that moment the two parts of the embryo tree struggle, as it were, 

 for the mastery. Certain inherent properties, either in the branches or the roots of one 

 or the other, will form a leading feature in the mature tree. A Blenheim Pippin 

 grafted with the Ribston Pippin apple imparts constitutional characteristics ; the branches 

 are more free from canker and the foliage vigorous and well developed. The fruit 

 remains the same in appearance, yet the flesh is softer and has not the peculiar flavour 

 of the Ribston Pippin, being a combination of the flavours of both the varieties. The 

 stock in other cases exerts a marked influence on the scion. The Muscat Grape worked 

 on the Black Hamburg smarts into growth a week in advance of vines on their own 

 Muscat roots, but there is no appreciable difference in the season of ripening, nor in 

 the character of the fruit. Grizzly Frontignan grafted on the White Frontignan grape 

 has produced white grapes, and other freaks of nature occasionally occur, proving that 

 one or other variety has gained the ascendant, the stock upward or the scion downward. 



All vegetable growth arises from a cell : shoots, leaves, and blossoms are but accumu- 

 lations of cells, in time developing woody fibre and other organs. A bud, or a graft 

 with buds, inserted in a different tree will unite and produce fruit similar to the kind 

 from which the bud or graft was taken. Between the wood and bark is where active 

 growth takes place, and the layer of young cells is known as the cambium layer. All 

 growth, of whatever nature, is by cells, and cell-growth is accomplished by small pro- 



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