CHAPTER XIII 



GENERAL POINTS CONCERNING FRUIT TREE 

 STOCKS* 



224. Effects of stock on cion. [With few exceptions] all fruit 

 trees are consorts of two individuals, stock and cion. So far 

 fruit growing has been carried on with little or no regard to their 

 interactions. Yet there is no doubt that each reacts upon the other 

 and that all grafted fruits are influenced for better or worse by the 

 stocks upon which they are worked. To this fact those who have 

 given the matter study now agree, though there is little accord in 

 the explanations offered to account for the various effects. In 

 short, about all we really know is that plants often get out of 

 gear in the adjustment of cion to stock. Why and how, remain 

 for the most part to be determined. 



Since we cannot find clear-cut analyses of the effects of stock 

 on cion, it is small wonder that fruit growers give little attention 

 to stocks. After centuries of fruit culture, we actually do not 

 know what the best stocks are for many fruits. Further to com- 

 plicate the situation, trees are profoundly modified by soil and 

 climate, the modifications not infrequently being confused with 

 those caused by the stock. Our fragmentary knowledge of stocks 

 being thus a thing of shreds and patches, few are willing to break 

 away from time-worn dictums, so continue to plant trees without 

 attention to the reciprocal influences of stock and cion. Briefly, 

 influences are as follows : 



225. Influences of tree fruit stock on cion. i. Stock modifies 

 form and size. Altered size and form of tree resulting from 

 grafting cannot be said to be due wholly to diminished vigor and 

 not at all to debility. Rather, the cion takes the size, form and 

 somewhat the peculiarities in habit of growth of the stock. Thus, 

 the scraggly Red Canada apple worked on Northern Spy assumes, 

 somewhat, not wholly, Spy characteristics of growth ; pear on 

 quince takes quince size ; apple on Paradise or Doucin, the size 

 and form of these stocks. Increased size rarely, if ever, occurs. 



2. Adaptability of species or variety to soil may be changed by 

 stock. Peach when worked on plum may do well on heavy soils 

 where on their own roots they would be worthless. Conversely, 

 plum can be adapted to light soils by working on peach, thriving 

 still better on Myrobalan in most soils. Everything points to maz- 

 zard rather than mahaleb for both sweet and sour cherries. Ninety- 



* Paragraphs 224 to 233 are condensed from an address by Prof. U. P. 

 Hedrick of New York, before the New York State Fruit Growers' Association. 



