88 HORTICULTURAL MAXUAL. 



that it will pay commercially to top-work the cherry and 

 plum on vigorous deep-rooting stocks. In Dupage 

 County, Illinois, over forty years ago James Wakeman 

 top-worked Early Richmond on stocks now known as 

 American Morello. The history of this variety is not 

 known. It is worthless for fruit where better varieties 

 can be grown, but it has remarkable vigor and hardiness 

 and has been scattered by means of sprouts over the whole 

 Northwest. The large commercial orchards top-worked 

 on this stock have borne heavily and regularly and have 

 outlived two or three generations of Early Richmond 

 nursery-grown trees on mahaleb roots. 



The same favorable experience has followed the use of 

 this hardy stock in many parts of the West. At first the 

 trees sprout !;Tit, when they come into heavy bearing the 

 sprouting mainly ceases to give trouble. The wild red 

 cherry (Primus Pennsylvanica) has also been used suc- 

 cessfully as a stock. All varieties worked on it have 

 proven hardier, lived longer, and have borne more regu- 

 larly and profusely than the same varieties root-grafted or 

 budded. 



With the plum the benefits of top-working have been 

 less apparent, except in the way of top-grafting select 

 native varieties on native plum seedlings. Where the 

 Japan and all foreign varieties have been top-grafted on 

 native stocks they have come into bearing very young, but 

 the top soon outgrows the stock and breaks off with the 

 heavy load of fruit. This does not seem to arise from 

 weakness of the stock, but from the hardening of the outer 

 bark below the grafts. By slitting and peeling off the 

 bands of outer cuticle the season after the grafting is done 

 we have secured an even growth of scion and stock, both 

 with the cherry and plum. Contrary to usual belief the 

 top-working of cherry and plum is as easy and certain as 



