52 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND THE FARMER : 



the more progressive growers, had to be content with material 

 often far from uniform and about which very Httle in the shape 

 of precise knowledge was available. Instances of fruit planta- 

 tions suffering from the use of unsuitable and mixed stocks 

 were then and are still all too commonly to be found. Hence 

 it was clearly worth while to devote considerable time, labour 

 and land to an investigation of the whole question. 



As a beginning a study of apple stocks was arranged jointly 

 between the two Institutes, Long Ashton undertaking the 

 classification of the .so-called " free " and " crab " types and 

 East Mailing the " Paradise " types. As the work proceeded 

 it became obvious that the popular conception of apple stocks 

 was entirely misleading. In the popular mind apple stocks were 

 of three types : (i) Paradise or dwarfing stocks with fibrous 

 and surface roots. These were raised by layers, and were suitable 

 only for bush and garden-trained trees. (2) Free or strong 

 growing stocks raised from seedlings of various sorts, mere 

 chance crosses, suitable for standard trees and weak-growing 

 varieties. (3) Crab stocks raised either from pips or suckers 

 of the " True Wild Crab," supposed to be especially hardy and 

 suited to the same purposes as the free stocks. Both the free 

 and crab stocks were reckoned to be deeper and coarser rooted 

 than the Paradise. For the investigations at Long Ashton and 

 East Mailing, many thousands of stocks have been obtained 

 from nurserymen and others in this country and from other 

 parts of the world, and have been closely studied and classified. 

 Briefly, the work on Paradise stocks shows that there are eight 

 or nine types of so-called Paradise in fairly general use in this 

 country, that the strong and weak types are frequently badly 

 intermixed, and that the names are interchangeable and in- 

 accurate. The types range in vigour from the true Broad- 

 leaved English Paradise, strong and vigorous enough for orchard 

 standards in many soils, to the true French Paradise, which 

 forces Bramley's Seedling in the second year from the graft 

 into copious fruiting. It was found that even stronger types 

 than the Broad-leaved were in use on the Continent, and 

 the.se appear to be as vigorous and well-anchored as any 

 so-called " crab." Similarly in the case of free and crab 

 stocks, there is no marked distinction between these two trade 

 divisions in root character, but they include a range of root 

 systems and vigour, similar to that obtaining in the case of 

 Paradise stocks, but with even more extreme variety. 



Now whereas Paradise stocks are raised vegetatively, and 

 any particular member of the series can be reproduced by that 

 method again and again, free stocks are normally raised from 



