218 



PLANT PROPAGATION 



from small, short and weak stock pieces are decidedly indifferent 

 and even distinctly poor. The point is that the two methods form 

 trees who,se roots at least are different in appearance and develop- 

 ment. Opinion seems to be general among fruit growers and 

 nurserymen that budded trees root more deeply than do root- 

 grafted ones and make longer-lived trees when transplanted to 

 the orchard. It is therefore concluded that more depends upon the 

 handling of stocks at the time of performing the operations than 

 upon the method per se. In the northwestern states where trees 

 on their own roots are preferred, piece-root grafting is not only 



more economical of stocks, 

 but has the merit that the 

 cions soon take root in the 

 orchard, and the trees be- 

 come "own-rooted" (242). In 

 other sections budded stock is 

 perhaps better than root- 

 grafted trees of the same 

 age and grown under the 

 same conditions ; at least as 

 dug in the nursery. Neverthe- 

 less as good trees can be 

 grown by the grafting meth- 

 od. As to results in the or- 

 chard the following para- 

 graphs will be interesting. 



282. Whole vs. piece root 

 vs. buds in apple propaga- 

 tion. During the past de- 



FIG. 



180 TRENCHER AND ROW 

 MARKER 



Used to mark rows for nursery stock 

 planting. 



cade or two work has been 

 done at experiment stations 

 in Pennsylvania, Oregon, 

 Kansas and Alabama, to 

 determine the relative value 



of whole and piece roots and budding. After 10 or 

 more years reports show that differences must be measured by 

 decimal fractions to be discovered at all. In Pennsylvania after a 

 decade of work, according to J. P. Stewart, trees propagated on 

 top-piece roots are slightly in the lead in all respects, with those on 

 whole roots second. In Alabama, trees on bottom pieces of stock 

 roots show a slight superiority at the close of the second season, 

 with those on top pieces second, and whole roots third. In Oregon, 

 trees on whole roots were slightly ahead at the close of the fourth 

 season, in the single variety remaining at that time, with those on 

 top-pieces again second. 



In Kansas 64 trees grafted on whole roots averaged one-tenth 

 inch larger in trunk diameter, at the end of 10 years' orchard 

 growth, than 30 trees budded in the usual manner on whole roots. 

 They in turn averaged one-fifth inch larger than 102 trees, involv- 



