132 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTIcrLTTRE 



usual depth below the surface of the soil, 

 to the more or less complete dwarfing of 

 the lower and earlier root system. This 

 is shown in Fig. 1, which represents the 

 root development from a whole-root graft, 

 which was buried about five inches be- 

 low the surface of the soil. The whitened 

 portion of the root is the original stock. 

 The other roots formed from the scion. 



All these experiments go to show that 

 the use of long scions and stocks may 

 be of some little advantage to nursery- 

 men in inducing a better growth of trees 

 during the first two or three years. The 

 long scions and stocks are, however, con- 

 siderably more expensive than the shorter 

 ones. Planting whole-root grafts is much 

 more laborious inan planting short piece- 

 root grafts. In reporting these experi- 

 ments the authors say that the difference 

 In growth in favor of the longer scions 

 and stocks is probably not sufficient to 

 repay the extra expense made necessary 

 by their use. 



For the fruit grower, at least in the 

 locality of the Kansas Station, the longer 

 stocks appear to have no advantage 

 over the shorter ones, since trees pro- 

 duced from them make no greater growth 

 than trees from the shorter stocks except 

 in the first few years. The fact that the 

 greater part of the root growth is made 

 from the upper part of the stocks is evi- 

 dence that the long stocks serve very little 

 purpose. The production of roots from 

 the scion, as occurred when short piece 

 roots were used, is in many cases a direct 

 advantage, since seedling stocks are very 

 variable in hardiness and vigor of growth, 

 lender the conditions at the Kansas sta- 

 tion piece roots from two to five inches 

 long are thought to give the best results, 

 all things considered. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 79. 



Apple on Pear and Pear on .Vpple 



The experience of nurserymen gener- 

 ally seems to be that apple scions on 

 pear roots result in sickly, short-lived 

 trees, although it is possible to secure a 

 good union and for a time the tree seems 

 to do well. When the tree is set very 

 deep so that the apple may put out new 



roots of its own a vigorous growth may 

 be secured, but in this case tne pear 

 root only serves the temporary purpose 

 of keeping the apple growing long 

 enough to enable it to secure roots of its 

 own. Pear roots are more expensive than 

 apple roots so that it is extremely un- 

 likely that the practice will be followed 

 to any extent, even though it were mod- 

 erately successful. 



Reversing the process and grafting 

 pear upon apple roots results in dwarfing 

 the pear. Here again it is possible to 

 secure a good union but with the dwarfing 

 effect noted. The tree thus produced is 

 more prolific but is short-lived. Planted 

 deeply the pear scion will root itself the 

 same as the apple but with greater diffi- 

 culty, according to some reports. 



Pears are grafted upon quince for the 

 purpose of dwarfing them and apples may 

 be grafted into "Paradise" stock, a low 

 form of apple, which results in dwarfing 

 the apple. 



Ed. 

 Heading: Trees in the Xnrsery 



* It is understood that the first prun- 

 ing largely determines the height of the 

 head of the tree. The question has arisen, 

 "Why not head the tree before it leaves 

 the nursery, instead of waiting until the 

 year of planting?" The system does 

 have advantages some of which I shall 

 set forth. One is that it brings returns 

 in the bearing fruit one to two years 

 before the ordinary trees begin to bear. 

 We have at this time in our nursery 18- 

 months'-old nursery stock headed In the 

 nursery with fruit on the trees at this 

 time. 



Mr. George Davenport, of Mabton, 

 Wash., fruit inspector, found many fruit 

 spurs on an eight-months'-old tree which 

 had been headed in the nursery. We have 

 been experimenting on heading, pruning 

 and growing trees in the nursery for two 

 years past in an attempt to produce trees, 

 which, when planted in the orchard as 

 fillers will produce apples the next year. 

 We are making our fillers principally 

 from Jonathans. Wageners and Rome 



• Tlie "Head" nf a tree is the point at whicli 

 the trunk forlis to form the main branches. — 

 Ed. 



