182 THE NURSERY MANUAL 



Peach, 1 year, medium, 3-4 ft., T VT 9 6- in. 

 Plum, 2 years, No. 1, 5-7 ft., -H in. and up 

 Plum, 2 years, medium, 4-6 ft., |~H in. 

 Cherry, sour, 2 years, No. 1, 4-6 ft., {-J- in. and up 

 Cherry, sour, 2 years, medium, 3-4 ft., f-fj in. 

 Sweet cherries will run about 1 ft. taller. 



Stocks for grafted fruit-trees 



A fruit-tree may be budded or grafted on seedling or cutting- 

 grown stocks of the same species of plant, or on stocks of a 

 related species. The practice is determined wholly by the 

 cheapness of the stock and the ease with which it can be grown 

 and worked, except that in the dwarfing of trees a special 

 definite kind of stock must be supplied. It does not follow that 

 the stocks now commonly used are intrinsically the best. The 

 subject is much in need of careful investigation not only in the 

 nursery but throughout the lifetime of the resulting orchards. 



The choice of stocks has usually not gone beyond the 

 species, whether, for example, the cherry shall be worked on 

 mahaleb which is Prunus Mahaleb or on the mazzard which 

 is Prunus avium, whether cultivated persimmon shall be 

 budded on Diospyros Kaki, or D. virginiana or D. Lotus. 

 Soon, however, we must refine our processes much more than 

 this. We exercise particular care in the variety to be propa- 

 gated for the top or over-ground part of the plant. We must 

 also discriminate as to the variety, rather than the species, of 

 the stock or under-ground part. We shall find ways to 

 propagate varieties and strains of stocks as we now have ways 

 to reproduce exactly the varieties and strains of the fruit- 

 bearing or flower-bearing part. This may increase the expense 

 of the finished plant, but the time is coming when we must 

 reduce the sources of failure to the minimum and be willing to 

 pay for the extra certainty. We must foresee the time when 

 a man may plant an orchard with all human assurance of 



