HORTICULTURE. 



Frtiit- 



Stoi-ks lot 

 praftinjj. 



For p/itm.t, apricots, peaches, nectarines, and almonds, 

 Ited-whcat plum, either from stones, or layers, or 



suckers. 



Black muscle plum, the same. 

 Greengage plum, the same. 

 Bullace-plum, a common native species, which 



has received its trivial name P. insititia, from 



being used for stocks. 

 For cherries, 



Small black cherry of the woods, Pnmus cerasus; 



and, 

 Wild red cherry of the woods, P. avium. 



f>0. It may here be remarked, that seedling stocks 

 which have a natural tendency to attain the full height 

 of the species to be grafted on them, arc by horticul- 

 turists universally AenommateAJ'rec-stocks. If the seeds 

 of different varieties of apples nd pears be sown, free- 

 stocks suited .for the grafting of apples and pears, are, 

 generally speaking, produced. When very great num- 

 bers of such stocks are wanted, the seeds are procured 

 from the manufacturers of cider and perry ; but where 

 a private gentleman wishes only to have a few hundred-s 

 of stocks, itseems much better to employ only select seeds, 

 that is, the kernels from good specimens of hardy and 

 healthy kinds of choice fruits, when in a ripe state. Crab 

 stocks are very much used : the seeds are to be procured 

 in quantity only where verjuice is made from the fruit. 

 The paradise apple is of no estimation as a fruit ; but 

 the tree being naturally dwarf, grafting on it tends to 

 dwarf the engrafted tree. The creeper apple has got 

 its name, from its tendency to throw up suckers, which 

 are easily detached with roots : it is sometimes called 

 the Dutch paradise. Pear-trees, as already said, are 

 grafted either on free- stocks from the seeds, or on 

 quince stocks from layers or suckers. The latter are 

 employed chiefly for dwarfing the trees, and throwing 

 them more early into bearing ; but with the view also 

 ^whether well or ill-founded is not the question) of im- 

 parting some degree of hardness and sharpness to the 

 melting sugary pears, the hard and breaking pears, on 

 the other hand, being placed on free stocks. For, all 

 practical gardeners, it may be observed, concur in stat- 

 ing, that the nature of the fruit is, to a certain extent, 

 affected by the nature of the stock. Miller says de- 

 cidedly, that crab stocks cause apples to be firmer, to 

 keep longer, and to have a sharper flavour ; and he is 

 equally confident, that if the breaking pears be grafted 

 on quince stocks, the fruit is rendered gritty or stony, 

 while the melting pears are much improved by such 

 stocks. This is scarcely to be considered as inconsist- 

 ent with Lord Bacon's doctrine, that " the cion over- 

 ruleth the graft quite, the stock being passive only ;" 

 which, as a general proposition, remains true; it being 

 evident that the graft or the bud is endowed with the 

 power of drawing from the stock that peculiar kind of 

 nourishment which is adapted to its nature, and that the 

 specific characters of the engrafted plant remain unchan- 

 ged, although its qualities may be partially affected. 

 Quince stocks, it may be added, are also proper where 

 the soil of the garden is naturally moist, the quince 

 agreeing with such a soil. Peaches and nectarines are, 

 in this country (as noticed in the tabular view) gene- 

 rally budded on plum stocks, particularly the black 

 muscle : but the more tender sorts are placed on seed- 

 ling stocks of their own kind, raised from peach-stones; 

 or perhaps on apricot stocks. In France, almond stocks 

 are much used ; and for this reason the French peach 

 trees seldom last good more than twenty years, while 



Stocks for 

 grafting. 



the English endure twice that period. Apricots also 

 are chiefly budded on plum stocks, the red wheat plum 

 being preferred for them. 



61 . In the second volume of the London Horticul- 

 tural Transactions, Mr Knight has given a few re- 

 marks on the effects of different kinds of stocks in 

 grafting, well deserving of attention, as being the re- 

 sult of more than thirty years experience. He is of opi- 

 nion, that a stock of a species or genus different from 

 that of the fruit to be grafted upon it, can rarely be 

 used with advantage, unless where the object of the 

 planter is to restrain or debilitate. If, therefore, ex- 

 tensive growth and durability be required, the peach, 

 nectarine, or aprioot, should not be grafted on the 

 plum ; but if it is intended to diminish the vigour and 

 growth of the tree, and if durability be not thought 

 an important quality, the plum stock is proper. The 

 same remark is applicable to the grafting of pears on 

 quince stocks. The finer sorts of peaches and necta- 

 rines are often budded on apricot stocks. Of this Mr 

 Knight approves ; but he adds, that, if lasting and vi 

 gorous trees be wished for, the bud cannot be placed 

 too near the ground. 



62. The seeds for stocks are commonly sown in 

 March, in four-feet beds. The germination of some 

 kinds is promoted by placing them in moist sand, in a 

 greenhouse or cellar, for some time previously. Next 

 season, the seedlings are transplanted into nursery rows. 

 Here they remain till they reach the size wished for, in 

 order to the forming of wall or espalier dwarfs, or dwarf 

 standards, half standards, or full standards, the cha- 

 racters of which will be immediately explained. For 

 the first three kinds, they are generally ready after two 

 seasons : for the last, not sooner than after three or 

 four. The finer kinds of plums are budded or grafted 

 on plum stocks, raised from the stones. The common 

 kinds of plums, and the almond, are propagated chief- 

 ly by suckers; figs, mulberries, and quinces, principally 

 by layers ; gooseberries and currants by cuttings. Se- 

 veral varieties of apple, as the original or bur-knot, 

 the brown apple of Burntisland, and some others, grow 

 by cuttings ; and many kinds, indeed all those sorts of 

 fruit trees that have small buds, may be propagated by 

 laying down branches, having a ligature of leather or 

 wire passed firmly around them, either above or below 

 a bud, in the part buried in the earth. At the place of 

 binding, the circulation of the sap being interrupted, 

 a swelling ensues, and roots break forth. The layer 

 is separated the following year, and planted where it 

 is intended to remain. This mode of propagating fruit 

 trees is well known and often practised on the conti- 

 nent, though little attended to in this country ; by it, 

 in the course of three years, bearing trees are produ- 

 ced, without the trouble of grafting. Stocks for cherry 

 trees, raised either from the native black cherry or 

 guigne, or the wild red cherry, are considered as less 

 apt to prove gummy or diseased, than those raised from 

 the stones of garden cherries, and they are at the same 

 time accounted more durable. 



Nursery Training. 



63. Fruit trees are trained as standards, of different Nursery 

 kinds ; as wall trees, or as espalier trees. For these, training. 

 stocks of different ages or sizes are requisite. Standards 



are subdivided into three kinds, full standards, half 

 standards, and dwarf standards. 



Full standards are less used in Scotland than in Eng- Full stan- 

 land, where stems six or seven feet in height before dards< 

 3 



