:PfEW ENGIiAND FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at thk Aorichltural Warkhouse.) — T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XI. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 10, 1833. 



NO. 13. 



Horticultural. 



The foUowirifj able ami imtercstUig es.=ay by Doctor 

 Meask of Philadelphia, was read at the last meeting of 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and directed to be 

 published in the New England Farmer. 



ON THE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE OF 

 THE STOCK AND ITS GRAFT. 



Ev James Mease, M. D. 



The opinion that the fruit produced by a grdft 

 is not in the least afteoted by the stock in which 

 the graft is inserted, has long been held as an ax- 

 iom in \ ejjetable jjhysiology, merely on the author- 

 ity of Lord Bacon, who lays it down, " that the 

 scion oviM--ruk'th the stocli quite, and that the 

 stock is but passive only, and giveth alimeni, but 

 no motion to the graft." In other words, lie con- 

 siders the stock merely as a source of nourisliment, 

 to be communicated to the scion in the vessels of 

 which it is to be decomposed or digestcc^ and 

 made to produce fruit in the time natural tn the 

 tree whence the scion is taken, and according to 

 its peculiar kind. 



I think I shall make it appear, that although as 

 a general rule, the principle is correct which W 

 signs a, passive agency to the stock, yet on rajny 

 occasions, it often has a decided influence 

 only on the vigor or fertility of the grafts, 

 also on the nature and quality of the fruit, ai 

 that a scion even eifects the production of th 

 stock. 



1. The first proof I had on this subject, was given 

 to me by the late Joseph Cooper, of New Jersey, 

 an experienced and observing farmer and horti- 

 culturist, who in the year 1804, showed me two 

 trees, both engrafted with the same kind of apple 

 by himself, and at the same time. The stock of 

 one was the Camplield apple, a native and excel- 

 lent fruit, that of the other was an early apple, 

 and in both instances, the fruit produced by the 

 graft partook of the flavor peculiar to the fruits of 

 the stocks. 



Mr Cooper afterwards communicated to me in 

 "writing his remarks on this subject, as follow. " I 

 have in numerous instances seen the stock have 

 great influence on the £(pt grafted thereon, in 

 respect *to bearing, size and flavor, and also on 

 the longevity of the tree, particularly in the in- 

 stance of a number of Vandevere* apple trees, ilie 

 fruit of which was so subject to the bitter rot, as 

 to be of little use. They were engrafted lifty 

 years ago, previously to 1804, and ever since, 

 those of them which had tops composed of sev- 

 eral difterent kinds, though they continue to be 



* This delicious apple is named " Vandevere," after 

 one of the Swedes, who in the early settlement of the 

 river Delaware, resided near Wilmington, about 27 inilrs 

 below Philadelphia. It is supposed therefore, that lie 

 brought the original trees fiom Sweden. The apple i-i 

 of the middle size, reddish, of a pleasant sweet and 

 slightly acid taste, a combination which renders it the 

 best apple for tarts and pies. They are however, subject 

 to a black spot, which increases with the growth of the 

 fruit, and from its iutense bitterness, requires to he taken 

 out before the apples are prepared for stewing. The dis- 

 ease is called the^ bitter rot." When first imported, 

 the tree was calleaP' Staalcube," which may have been 

 its Swedish name. 



mote productive of fruit than any others in my 

 orciard, yet are subject to the bitter rot, the orig- 

 ina' and well known disi^ase of the frtiit of the 

 stock. I have had frequent opportunities of ob- 

 serving the same circumstance, in consequence of 

 iny receiving many scions from my friends, which 

 affr bearing, I engrafted, and the fruit uniformly 

 pailook in some degree of the qualities of the ibr- 

 infr, oven in their disposition to bear annually or 

 biennially." 



k A correspondent of Mr Bradley, (JUrFairchild) 

 bulded a passion-tree, of which the leaves were 

 spotted with yellow, into one that bore long fruit ; 

 anJ though the buds did not take, in the course of 

 tw) weeks, yellow spots began to show thein- 

 seli'cs about three feet above the inoculation, and 

 in a short time afterwards, such spots appeared 

 on a shoot which came out of the earth from 

 another part of the plant. The publication of 

 these facts, is a proof of the candor of Bradley, in- 

 'asniuch as they opposed his theory, which was 

 similar to that of Lord Bacon, for he says, "the 

 scion preserves its natural purity and instinct, 

 though it be fed and nourished by a mere crab." 



3. The late celebrated English gardener, Wil- 

 liam Speechly, regarded the stock as over-ruling 

 the scion, and in confirmation of this opinion says, 

 that "whenever a cutting is taken from an aged ( 

 tree in a state of decay, and engrafted upon a 

 thriving stock imtnediately from seed, it may with 

 |iropriety be considered as a renovation from de- 

 cr^'pit old age, to youth and healthful vigor."* In 

 tiig treatise on the culture of the 'vine, he adds, 

 that "he had itnproved many kinds of vines, by 

 enjrafting those which have generally weak wood 

 on plants which are stronger." 



4. Thomas Hitt, another well known English 

 gaidener and writer, says, " that the future vigor 

 of trees depends equally upon the soil and stock, 

 anci that the tastes of the fruit may also be im- 

 piifved by proper stocks. Hence he gives very 

 particular directions as to the selection of stocks 

 fti^ various fruits, and illustrates the necessi- 

 ty of attention for them, by stating the fact, 

 thut " if two Nonpareil branches are grafted 

 the one upon a paradise stock, the other up- 

 on a crab, and both planted in the same soil 

 and situation, that upon the crab stock will 

 produce fruit so sour and ill tasted, in comparison 

 t» the fruit of the other, that if a person should 

 taste them both in the dark, he could not imag- 

 ine them to be the same fruit." 



" I have also," he says, " seen very great differ- 

 ence between the fruit of these trees, when one 

 was grafted upon a paradise, and the other upon 

 I codlin stock ; for though the juices were so far 

 «hanged by passing through the buds and pores 

 of nonpareil branches, as to produce fruit alike in 

 shape, yet their tastes were different, and some- 

 what resembled the taste of that fruit which the 

 stocks would have naturally produced. The jui- 

 ces of the crab and codlin are known to be very 

 acid, but the juice of the natural fruit of the para- 

 dise is sweet.f" He adds, '.' as most kinds of ap- 



• Hints on Rural Economy, London, IS21. 



I Treatise on Fruit Trees, 3d Edition, p. 46, London, 



ricots when fully ripe, are rather too sweet and 

 mealy, so when they are budded upon any kind 

 of pinm stacks which have that sort of juice, 

 their fruit becomes more mealy and sweet than 

 those which were budded upon stocks, whose 

 juices were more acid." 



5. Mr Thotnas A. Knight, President of the 

 Horticultural Society of London, in a paper " On 

 the effects of diflWent kinds of grafting,"* ob- 

 serves, that "the form and habit which a peacli 

 tree of any givfen variety is disjjosed to assume, 

 he has found, to be very much influenced by the 

 kind of stock upon which it is budded: if upon a 

 plum or apricot stock, its stem will increase in 

 size considerably as its base approaches the stock, 

 and it will emit many lateral shoots: when on the 

 contrary a peach is budded upon the stock of a 

 cultivated variety of its own species, the stock and 

 the budded stem remain very nearly of the same 

 size, as well above as below the point of their 

 jmiction. No obstacle is presented to the ascent 

 or descent of the sap, which appears to ascend 

 more abundanjly to the surainit of the tree." He 

 also gives the following striking fact to demon- 

 strate the influence of the stock upon the graft in- 

 serted in it. The " Moor Park Apricot tree in 

 his garden, as in many others, becomes in a few 

 years diseasetj and debilitated, and generally ex- 

 hibits in spaces near the head of its stock, lifeless 

 alburnum beneath a rough bark. Si.xtecn years 

 ago a single plantof this variety was obtained by 

 grafting uponSin apricot stock, and the bark of 

 this tl-eestiH-rettkits a smootli and polished sur- 

 face, and the whole tree presents a degree of 

 health and vigor so different from any other tree 

 of the same kind in his garden, that he has found 

 it diflncult to convince gardeners who have seen 

 it, of its specific identity."! 



6. Mr Thomas Torbron, gardener to the Count- 

 ess of Bridgewater, snys, that " choice sorts of 

 pears by being grafted upon the quince, cotne sev- 

 eral years sooner into bearing, and produce much 

 better crops, than those upon the common, or free 

 stock. He adds, that " the fruit will be in no re- 

 spect inferior, and that he has had opportunities 

 of seeing the superiority of the quince stock in 

 three diflerent counties in England."} 



7. Among the extracts given by Sir Joseph 

 Banks from French authors, in the appendix to 

 the 1st vol. of the Transactions of the London 

 Horticultural Society, it is sl;jted, that " the Cras- 

 sane pear may be improved, and all its harslinese 

 deetroyed by grafting upon the Doyenne : and 

 that the Reinc Claude plum is much improved, 

 by being grafted upon an apricot or peach stock." 



8. Bradley says, that "since the Jordan al- 

 mond had been grafted on plum stocks in Eng- 

 land, they bore very well, whereas, in the time of 

 Ray, they seldom produced ripe fruit. Canary al- 

 monds grafted on the plum, succeed well, while 

 the seedlings of the same species, of five or six 

 years' growth, appear all nipped and shrivelled."^ 



9. The "Spitzenburgapple,"wldch originated 

 near Albany, in the State of New York, is one of 



* Vol. ii. p. 199. . , .. o, 



1 London HorUcullural Transactions, Tol. n. p. Zl 

 J Do. do. do. vii. p. 218. 



§ On Gardening, vol. ii. p. 135. 



