STOCK AND CION HANDLING 



217 



former, when dug from the nursery row all this apart from 

 differences characteristic of variety. Such differences are due to 

 differences in stock cutting. Doubtless if stocks were cut alike for 

 both budding and root grafting development would be closely 

 similar; for when short pieces of root with few lateral branches 

 are used they must grow differently from long roots with numerous 

 branches. In strong stocks where only the tips are cut off and bud- 

 ding performed root development is largely if not wholly lateral, 

 whereas when small pieces are used growth is mainly downward. 

 Hence the theoretical conclusion that at a given nursery age, 

 whole-rooted trees have naturally and necessarily longer and 

 stronger roots than those grown from piece roots. 



When root pieces are very small the resulting trees will be small 

 at the end of the first growing season. Hence nurserymen often 

 cut back the tops so as to secure stout, straight bodies which show no 

 trace of the growth ring between seasons, and which do not branch 

 top low or send up a crooked leader from a lateral bud, due to the 

 winterkilling of the terminal one. If the trees are sold as two 

 years old there can be no objection to this practice, but if the age 

 is reckoned from the cut, an injustice is almost surely done the 

 fruit grower, because greater quantities of roots are removed at 

 digging time than would be the case with true one-year trees. The 

 first season's growth should always be high enough to form a good 

 tree body of the right height, whether or not the fruit grower is a 

 believer in low or high-headed trees. 



Budded trees of the same age as root-grafted ones grown in the 

 same field usually average larger, the difference diminishing in pro- 

 portion as the length of the root stock p'.ece increases. Similarly 

 their root systems go deeper and show more symmetry, but these 

 characteristics also lessen as the root stocks lengthen. 



It must not be concluded from the discussion so far presented 

 that budded trees are necessarily superior to root-grafted ones, 

 though it is probably a fact that "large numbers of trees produced 



FIG. 179 TWO STYLES OF CROWN GRAFTING 



A, slot of bark removed for cions a, b; B, cions fitted in place; C, completed 

 graft; D, slot of wood and bark removed; c, cion cut to triangular wedge to fit 

 slot in stock; E, stock and cion fitted; F, completed graft; G, slot making or 

 "inlaying" tool. 



