178 A(JR1UULTURAL APPROPRIATIOX BILL, 1924, 



Doctor Taylor. The difference is that the item on page 117 is the 

 work (lone on fruit, the word "veo;etahle" heing inserted there to make 

 it technically legal to carry work on both products where necessary 

 and advisable, and to simplify the financing of it. Primarih- that 

 on page 113 deals with fruit studies and primarily that one on page 

 117 deals with vegetables. Generally the products under experiment 

 are from different sections of the country at any one time, though 

 not always. 



NURSERY STOCK INVESTIGATIONS. 



Page 119 contains the item for investigating and cooperating in 

 connection with State orprivately owned nurseries, methods of propa- 

 gating fruit trees, ornamental and other plants, the study of stocks 

 used in propagating such plants and methods of growing stocks, for 

 the purpose of providing American sources of stocks, cuttings, or 

 other propagating material. This is a paragraph under which our 

 experimental work looking toward the development of larger pro- 

 duction of grafting stocks of fruit trees and ornamental plants in 

 this country is being done to reduce our dependence upon imported 

 stocks of this character from foreign countries. Such importations 

 always, in spite of any guaranties or inspections that can be main- 

 tained, involve a certain risk of introduction of additional pests, and 

 in proportion to the completeness of our production of our own 

 requirements in this country are we likely to exclude such destructive 

 pests. 



Mr. Anderson. To what extent is progress being made t)n the pro- 

 duction of seedlings used in this country i 



Doctor Tay'lor. Considerable, both as to seed-grown stocks and 

 vegetatively propagated stocks. The progress made gives promise 

 of perhaps ultimately displacing seedling stocks for some kinds of 

 fruit trees. For instance, in the case of the apple, through propaga- 

 tion of grafting stocks of special varieties trom cuttings, so that in 

 place of a variable lot of seedling apple stocks to graft upon you may 

 have uniformly vigorous, hardy, and insect-resistant stocks. Very 

 distinct progress has been made within the past two veal's in that 

 directi(m, particularly in case of the apple. Some of that work was 

 done out here at Bell Station in Maryland, and some of it in Michigan. 

 It is a field in which our men are pioneering in the expectatit)n that 

 some of the problems will be simplilied — some of the problems of the 

 nurserymen and the production considerably stabilized. 



Mr. Buchanan. Does the grafted or budded tree take on the 

 hardihood of the tree from which it came or the tree on which it was 

 budded or grafted? It produces the variety of the tree from which 

 it was taken, but how about the hardihood, and resistance^ 



Doctor Taylor. That is a very complicated (piestion. In some 

 cases, grafting on certain stocks increases the hardiness o[ the variety 

 that you are |)ropagating. As for exam|)le, the Satsuma orange when 

 grafted on the trifoliate stock, which is what is calUnl the hartly 

 orange, which sheds its leaves in the winter and is distinctly hardy, 

 will endure lower temperature than if grafttul on the sweet orang{>s, 

 which is the standard stock of the more southern citrus districts. 



Ml". Buchanan. Will it endure the same degree of wint(M' as the 

 other ? 



