222 THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF STOCKS IN GRAFTING. 



descending sap ; and the fruit of such young trees ripens, I think, some- 

 what earlier than upon other young trees of the same age, which grow 

 upon stocks of their own species ; but the growth and vigour of the tree, 

 and its power to nourish a succession of heavy crops, are diminished, 

 apparently, by the stagnation, in the branches and stock, of a portion of 

 that sap, which, in a tree growing upon its own stem, or upon a stock of 

 its own species, would descend to nourish and promote the extension of 

 the roots. The practice, therefore, of grafting the pear-tree on the 

 quince stock, and the peach and apricot on the plum, where extensive 

 growth and durability are wanted, is wrong ; but it is eligible wherever 

 it is wished to diminish the vigour and growth of the tree, and where its 

 durability is not thought important. The last remark applies chiefly to 

 the Moor-park apricot *. 



When great difficulty is found in making a tree, whether fructiferous, 

 or ornamental, of any species, or variety, produce blossoms, or in making 

 its blossoms set when produced, success will probably be obtained in 

 almost all cases, by budding or grafting upon a stock which is nearly 

 enough allied to the graft to preserve it alive for a few years, but not 

 permanently. The pear-tree affords a stock of this kind to the apple ; 

 and I have obtained a heavy crop of apples from a graft which had been 

 inserted in a tall pear stock, only twenty months previously, in a season 

 when every blossom of the same variety of fruit in the orchard was 

 destroyed by frost. The fruit thus obtained was externally perfect, and 

 possessed all its ordinary qualities ; but the cores were black and without 

 a single seed ; and every blossom had certainly fallen abortively, if it had 

 been growing upon its native stock. The experienced gardener will 

 readily anticipate the fate of the graft : it perished in the following 

 winter. The stock, in such cases as the preceding, promotes, in propor- 

 tion to its length, the early bearing and early death of the graft. 



The authority of Duhamel gives us reason to believe, that the defects 

 of particular soils may be remedied by a proper selection of stocks ; and 

 that cases may occur, in which it will be eligible to bud the peach and 

 nectarine upon the apricot or plum. My own experience induces me to 

 think very highly of the excellence of the apricot stock, for the peach or 

 nectarine ; but wherever that, or the plum stock is employed, I am 

 confident the bud cannot be inserted too near the ground, when vigorous 

 and durable trees are wanted. The opinion of Mr. Wilmot, in a former 

 volume of our Transactions t, is, upon this point, opposed to mine ; but I 



* The Abricot-Peche, or Abricot de Nancy, of the French. 

 t Horticultural Transactions, Vol. I. page 216. 



