574 FUNDAMENTALS OF FRUIT PRODUCTION 



mined by actual count but for the statement regarding size we have only 

 the fact that the proportion of unmarketable grapes was greater on the 

 ungrafted than on the topworked vines. The greater fertility of the 

 varieties on other than their own roots cannot be ascribed to larger vines. 

 No data are available as to size of vines but judging by the eye alone the 

 grafted vines do not make as much wood as do the varieties on their own 

 roots." 



It should be stated that there is by no means a unanimity of opinion 

 as to the effect of dwarfing stocks on the size of the individual fruit, even 

 in Europe. 



Quality. — Practically all the older authorities were agreed that in 

 some cases the stock influences the quality of the fruit borne by the cion; 

 as to the extent of this influence there was more diversity of opinion. 



Downing,^" writing in 1845, stated: "A slight effect is sometimes produced 

 by the stock on the quality of the fruit. A few sorts of pear are superior in 

 flavour but many are also inferiour, when grafted on the Quince, while they are 

 more gritty on the thorn. The Green Gage, a plum of great delicacy of flavour 

 varies considerably upon different stocks; and Apples raised on the crab, and 

 Pears on the Mountain Ash, are said to keep longer than when grown on their 

 own roots." 



Barry^^ spoke of the Beurre Diel pear as, "Sometimes gritty at the core on 

 pear stock; invariably first rate on the quince." Again, of the Glout Morceau: 

 "like the Duchesse d'Angouleme, Louise Bonne and some others, it is decidedly 

 superior on the quince."^* 



Lindley^^ wrote: "It is not merely upon the productiveness or vigour of the 

 scion that the stock exercises an influence; its effects have been found to extend 

 to the quality of the fruit. This may be conceived to happen in two ways — 

 either by the ascending sap carrying up with it into the scion a part of the secre- 

 tions of the stock, or by the difference induced in the general health of a scion by 

 the manner in which the flow of ascending and descending sap is promoted or 

 retarded by the stock. In the Pear, the fruit becomes higher coloured and smaller 

 on the Quince stock than on the wild Pear, still more so on the Medlar. . . . 

 Mr. Knight mentions such differences in the quality of his Peaches. . . . Since 

 the quality of fruit is thus affected by the stock, it seems allowable to infer that 

 the goodness of cultivated fruits is deteriorated by their being uniformly worked 

 upon stocks whose fruit is worthless; for example, the Almond or the austere 

 Plum can only injure the Peaches they are made to bear, the Crab the Apple, 

 and so on." Lindley cites with apparent approval numerous other instances 

 of the sort. 



A generation later the grape growers of France were forced by the 

 ravages of the phylloxera to confront this question in connection with the 

 grafting of their Vinifera varieties on American vines whose fruit was, 

 at the best, of indifferent quahty. Much misgiving was felt lest the 

 quality of the wines made from the new combination plants should be 

 inferior to that of the older vines on their own roots. This great experi- 



