THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF STOCKS IN GRAFTING. 223 



speak upon the evidence of long experience, and of experiments accurately 

 and purposely made with my own hands. 



The form and habit which a peach-tree of any given variety is disposed 

 to assume, I find to be very much influenced by the kind of stock upon 

 which it has been budded : if upon a plum or apricot stock, its stem will 

 increase in size considerably, as its base approaches the stock, and it will 

 be much disposed to emit many lateral shoots, as always occurs in trees 

 whose stems taper considerably upwards ; and, consequently, such a tree 

 will be more disposed to spread itself horizontally, than to ascend to the 

 top of the wall, even when a single stem is suffered to stand perpendi- 

 cularly upwards. 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 at, as well as above and below, 

 the point of their junction. No obstacle is presented to the ascent, or 

 descent, of the sap, which appears to ascend more abundantly to the 

 summit of the tree. It also appears to flow more freely into the slender 

 branches, which have been the bearing wood of preceding years : and 

 these consequently extend themselves very widely, comparatively with 

 the bulk of the stock and large branches. 



When a stock of the same species with the graft or bud, but of a 

 variety far less changed by cultivation, is employed, its effects are very 

 nearly allied to those produced by a stock of another species, or genus : 

 the graft, generally, overgrows its stock ; but the form and durability 

 of the tree are generally less affected, than by a stock of a different 

 species or genus. 



Many gardeners entertain an opinion, that the stock communicates a 

 portion of its own power to bear cold, without injury to the species, or 

 variety of fruit, which is grafted upon it : but I have ample reason to 

 believe, that this opinion is wholly erroneous : and this kind of hardiness 

 in the root alone can never be a quality of any value in a stock ; for the 

 branches of every species of tree are much more easily destroyed by frost, 

 than its roots. Many also believe, that a peach-tree, when grafted upon 

 its native stock, very soon perishes ; but my experience does not further 

 support this conclusion, than that it proves seedling peach-trees, when 

 growing in a very rich soil, to be greatly injured, and often killed, by the 

 excessive use of the pruning-knife upon their branches, when those are 

 confined to too narrow limits. The stock, in this instance, can, I conceive, 

 only act injuriously by supplying more nutriment than can be expended ; 

 for the root which nature gives to each seedling plant must be well, if not 

 best, calculated to support it ; and the chief general conclusions which 



