FRUIT STOCKS 141 



Damsons, the Yellow Egg, the Washington, the Domestica and 

 the Insititia varieties do not unite readily with the Peach. 



Mariana stocks root readily from cuttings and give a good 

 nursery appearance, but they are inclined to sucker. 



The Americana stock is the only safe one for the coldest parts of 

 this country. It suckers badly but produces a good root system. 

 Americana stocks are not extensively employed by nurserymen 

 because of their price and their unknown value. 



Munsoniana seedlings are adapted for stocks when the orchard is 

 planted in low, wet lands. 



P. pumila is used as a stock for dwarfing Plums. 



In top working Plums let the work be done early in the life of 

 the tree. Later working will make slow and crooked growth. The 

 Lombard has proved a successful stock for top working the Domes- 

 tica varieties. 



PEDIGREED STOCKS 



There has been more or less discussion about the value of pedi- 

 greed fruit. The expression "pedigreed stock" is used by some 

 nurserymen to mean that they guarantee their stock true to name, 

 and that it has been propagated from bearing trees. 



Other nurserymen mean by it that they are propagating their 

 stock from superior, high yielding trees. If the latter is meant, 

 there is little evidence to show that pedigreed stock is superior to 

 ordinary stock. Prof. U. P. Hedrick writes regarding Plums: 



"Buds in propagating are usually taken from nursery stock, a 

 practice of decades, and there is no wearing out of varieties. Old 

 varieties have lost none of the characters accredited to them a 

 century, or several centuries, ago by pomological writers. Nor does 

 it seem to matter, in respect to trueness to type, whether the buds 

 be taken from a vigorous, young stripling, a mature tree in the hey- 

 day of life, or some struggling, lichen-covered ancient all alike 

 reproduce the variety. The hypothesis that fruit trees degenerate 

 or, on the other hand, that they may be improved by bud-selection, 

 finds no substantiation in this fruit." 



Certain other authorities and, especially, nurserymen, like to 

 believe that a good tree bearing good fruit yields buds and cions 

 superior to those taken from an ordinary specimen tree. The reader 

 must not take this statement to mean that cions of Bartlett Pears 

 would not be superior to cions from a seedling tree or one of an in- 

 ferior variety. It does mean that it is characteristic of a certain 

 variety to manifest certain characters which are often greatly im- 

 proved by culture, but the improvement due to superior culture is 



