188 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



on the fruit in the same year that the fruit is produced. This sub- 

 had been discussed by the Michigau Horticultural Society, and it 

 was generally agreed by those who took part in the discussion that 

 such an influence had been, sometimes at least, observed. One 

 man said that his Manchester strawberries (a pistillate variety) 

 were so much influenced in form by the Sharpless growing near 

 that he sold them for Sharpless. Squashes and other vegetables 

 which mix do not generally show the effect the same year. If the 

 views entertained by the Michigan cultivators in regard to the 

 strawberry are correct, it shows the importance of care iu planting. 

 Professor Bailey of Michigan told the speaker that cultivators 

 had many illustrations of this effect, but he did not go quite so far 

 in his belief in it as some did. 



O. B. Hadwen said that we attribute certain eflfects to the 

 influence of the stock on the graft, or vice versa, but we really 

 know little of it. We can increase the size of small pears like 

 the Seckel and Dana's Hovey by grafting them on vigorous stocks. 

 It is well known to nurserymen that fruit trees of different varieties 

 vary in the roots, so that some varieties can be identified by the 

 roots, though the trees are grafted, and this difference is caused 

 by the returning sap. He has seen Baldwin apples half or two- 

 thirds covered with russet, which he attributes to the pollen of 

 russet apples growing near. Bat this influence or that of the stock 

 on the scion decs not extend so far as to produce new varieties, 

 for if it prepoudeiated we should have lost the types of varieties 

 which are well known to be unchanged after grafting for many 

 years. There are so many conditions and laws affecting these 

 influences, and all apparently different, that they will probably 

 always be a subject for study, and we never can arrive at any 

 positive conclusion. 



Joseph H. "Woodford confirmed what Mr. Strong had said about 

 the abutilon. He had known a plain variety grafted with the 

 variegated, to produce variegated shoots three feet below the graft, 

 forming a new variety, which was perpetuated. He thought the 

 mutual influence of stock and graft was generally conceded. A 

 vigorous graft inserted in a weak stock will have its vigor lessened. 



J. W. Manning said that either the red or yellow Siberian crab 

 or the Tetofsky apple when grafted on common stocks would 

 cause them to produce immense roots. 



Rev. A. B. Muzzey thought it very strange that nurserymen 

 and fruit growers pay so little attention to stocks ; those who 



