AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 201 



For hill layering by simple banking up, see " Offshoots," 

 p..203. 



STOCKS. 



For the propagation of fruits by grafting or budding, stocks 

 are required, and it is of great importance that they be stocks 

 on which the fruit we graft or bud will not only grow, but last 

 and grow healthfully to maturity. Grafts or buds may some- 

 times grow for a year or two upon very incongruous stocks, as 

 the peach upon the wild cherry, &c., and the curious may try 

 to ascertain how far these incongruities, and devices to coun- 

 terfeit them, which are so famous in Chinese and Italian gar- 

 dening, may be pushed. The ancients as well as the moderns 

 amused themselves with such experiments, and have left us 

 the record of their very useless labors. A different course 

 must be pursued if we seek fruits for use or profit. 



Stocks should be of kindred species with the graft or bud 

 that is united to them, or at least of the same natural order, 

 as pear and quince, or thorn ; plum and peach, &c. 



Unless for the purpose of dwarfing, the stock should always, 

 if possible, be of as free growth as the kind which is grafted 

 or budded upon it ; and if this can not be attained, then the 

 grafting or budding should be performed close to the ground, 

 so that when the tree is transplanted the head of the stock 

 may be set entirely under ground, otherwise the grafted kind 

 will largely overgrow the stock at the point of junction, and 

 probably induce disease and premature decay. 



In many parts of our country there is difficulty in this mat- 

 ter in respect to stocks for plums, but few of our common kinds, 

 except the Mussel or Horse plum, being free growers, while 

 this is so liable to the black knot as to render it nearly value- 

 less, in addition to which it is almost always raised from lay- 

 ers, which do not root like seedlings. 



ROOT STOCKS. 



Pieces of the roots of mature trees are sometimes used for 

 grafting, being cut into lengths for this purpose (Fig. 85 a), 

 and set out after the grafting is performed, an expedient which 



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