Stocks for Fruit-trees 171 



Plums may be worked on peach for light soils. There 

 are several kinds of plums used as stocks, and there is 

 much difference of opinion as to their merits. Seedlings 

 of the common orchard plum are probably to be preferred, 

 except that the varieties of native plums should be 

 grown on native or wild stock. The myrobalan is much 

 used, but is probably inferior. French stocks of the St. 

 Julien type are also imported to some extent. 



There are two prevailing cherry stocks, the mazzard 

 and mahaleb. The latter is much used by nurserymen 

 because of its cheapness and ease of working, but it is 

 inferior. Sour cherries are likely to be very unsatis- 

 factory on mahaleb. The native dwarf or sand cherry is 

 used to some extent in the northern plains region as a 

 very hardy stock; it also has a dwarfing effect. 



There has been little critical study of the hardiness of 

 the different stocks. Chandler, however, reports that 

 "roots of the French crab used as a stock seem to be 

 more tender than roots which come from cions of an aver- 

 age variety of apple. Marianna plum roots are certainly 

 more hardy than myrobalan roots, and mahaleb cherry 

 roots seem slightly more hardy than mazzard roots." 



Stock for top-working. 



If one is to plant hardy stocks and then work them 

 over with selected cions, he should usually plan to graft 

 or bud them after they have stood in the orchard one 

 year. Good results sometimes follow grafting in the very 

 year in which the stock is set, but this is the exception. 



Some persons have proposed to sow seeds in the very 

 spot where the trees are to stand, and thereby to raise 

 stocks for top-working without transplanting them; but 

 the labor and uncertainty of the method make it imprac- 



