S14 



Hesloring Peach Tree.t. 



OL. 



III. 



is so destructive to peach tree?, would not 

 touch t'le almond block, and that the liard 

 shelled almond raised from seed, do not like 

 the original, produce handsome straijihl stocks, 

 1 had a row of young peach trees along the 

 main walk budded to the almond at tlie sur- 

 fiice of the ground, and when grown tall, 

 budded again about five or six feet high to the 

 old Newington clingstone, a fruit of a globu- 

 lar form. Passing by this row of trees two 

 years after, when the fruit was ripe, I stopped 

 to gather some, and to my astonishment, I 

 found the fruit to be of an oval form ; know- 

 ing I had budded them myself, from a bearing 

 tree of the old Newington, and that the fruit 

 now was oval when they should have been 

 round, it struck me that perhaps the almond 

 etock had caused the alteration; it occurred 

 to me immediately, that there were some 

 peach stocks in the same row where the alm- 

 ond buds had failed, and if there were fruit 

 on them, and they retained their natural form, 

 it would be a convincing proof of the almond 

 stock having altered the form of the fruit. On 

 examining the row, I found several stocks of 

 peaches inoculated the same height as the alm- 

 onds, with fruit on, which retained their usual 

 round form, when all on the almond stocks 

 were oval, and very much so, that the differ- 

 ence was so plain, you would have thought 

 them a different fruit, but the color and flavor 

 were the same. I went immediately to my 

 brother' who lived then at a short distance, and 

 told him of it, but he could not think it possible 

 till he went and saw it himself, and was then 

 satisfied of the fact. I have been thus par- 

 ticular, that you may see I can have no doubt 

 in my mind. 



The New England Farmer, April 17th, 

 1829, in an article signed J. W., and dated at 

 Weston, mentions, respecting the effect of the 

 stock on the graft, that a red apple becomes 

 of a more brilliant red when grafted on a 

 stock that produces red fruit; a green or yel- 

 low apple stock diminishes its beauty, and 

 that he had seen scions taken from one tree 

 and set in pale green and in red apple stocks, 

 and that the apples they produced bore no re- 

 semblance to each other on these two trees. 



The fanners on Long Island, in King's 

 county, have been so well satisfied of the in- 

 fluence of the stock on the grail for some 

 years past, that they procure stocks of the 

 largest green apple to graft with the Newton 

 pippin, so as to iiave large fair fruit. Life 

 hcems too short for experiments that require 

 many years to bring them to perfection, as 1 

 observed above thirty years ago to Fisher 

 Ames, who was very curious in fruit. 1 then 

 stated to him what Mr. Knight is now bring- 

 ing to perfection, that fruit like pigeon.-, (as 

 the pigeon fanciers say) might be brod in a 

 feather by mixing the farina' and planting the 



seed, then repeating the same on the new 

 plant, but the time necessary to carry such 

 experiments into effect was enough to dis- 

 courage any one from attempting it. I shall 

 however have some experiments tried to as- 

 certain whether the old French method of 

 o-rafting in and in, will change the form and 

 flavor of fruits, for after what I saw myself as 

 above stated, I am now convinced it will. 



I have now to state to you what I have ne- 

 ver met witli in any author, that the graft 

 hax an injluence on the stock and root of the 

 tree. The cherry tree when the thcrmcme- 

 ter in hard winter falls much below zero, is 

 frequently killed by the severity of the frost. 

 I had some years ago, 1821, a number of 

 cherry trees killed, but the weeping cherry, 

 a native of Siberia, although budded some 

 height from the ground, remained uninjured ; 

 this led me more minutely to examine their 

 roots, and I found invariably, that the roots of 

 all the weeping cherries difl^ered from the 

 roots of other cherry trees, although the slock 

 was the same ; tlie roots of ihe trees grafted 

 or budded with the weeping cherry being 

 much fuller of fine spreading fibres, and root- 

 ing much stronger. Mentioning this fact to 

 a man who keeps a small apple nursery in this 

 place, and on whose veracity I could depend, 

 he told me that the graft of the Siberian crab 

 apple trees, although grafted two feet from 

 the ground, affected the roots, and caused 

 them to become so wiry and hard, and so full 

 of these fine tough fibrous roots, and that they 

 were very different from the roots of other 

 apple trees. 



I have now given you all the information I 

 possess on this subject. 



Yours, respect fully, 



Wm. Princk. 



Mostorisag Pcacli Trees. 



\Vhen I removed in the spring of 18^4, to 

 the house where I now reside, there stood in 

 the back yard a dwindled, yellow leafed, 

 sickly looking peach treo. which I was dis- 

 posed to cut down. It was however spared at 

 the request of other membeis of the family. 

 Early in the sunmier the fruit ripened prema- 

 turely — were bitter knotty things, and scarce- 

 ly fit for any use. I again rrsolvcd to cut it 

 down, but upon further consideration it occur- 

 red to me that it afforded a fit opportunity for 

 experiment. I accordinffly took the earth 

 awav from it, and exposed the roots to a con- 

 siderable depth — upon cxnmination I found 

 the bark f()r some inches below the surface 

 iuCested with masses of worms — from the 

 thickness of a straw to that of a needle. All 

 of these T endeavored to remove, and carefully 

 cut out all the diseased parts of the bark and 

 wood. After this I took hot soap suds very 

 strong, and poured it plentifully about the 



