246 Root-grafted versus Stock-grafted Fruit Trees. 



former have come to a perfect stand still, and are not worth 

 transferring from the nursery row, where they were put when 

 first received, to gain strength. These are facts, which any 

 one who will take the pains to look, can see at any time. 



The explanation we take to be this — that many kinds of 

 apples are naturally weak or slender growers ; they are root- 

 grafted, and when transferred to their own roots, which they 

 will be in a year or two, they still remain weak. Mr. Barry 

 knows the theory of this very well. How long is it since he 

 found out the value of a new fastigiate or upright quince, 

 which was to make the best stock in the world for the pear ? 

 it grew so rapidly, propagated so readily, (fcc. Why the best 

 stock ? because, as he said, it imparted vigor to the scion. 

 Mr. Barry knows that cultivators always take thrifty growing 

 camellias for cuttings, upon which to inarch or graft the 

 weaker ones ; root-grafted would be no better than cuttings, 

 as the plants would soon establish themselves. Some azaleas, 

 like Indica variegata, are hard to keep alive on their own 

 roots, but grafted in the phoenicea, they thrive almost as 

 well as the stock. The practice of making standard trees of 

 small shrubs, is on the same principle. A root-graft of a 

 weeping elm would never make a good tree ; but a stock- 

 graft soon produces one. The explanation is so simple, that 

 we are surprised at the question. The R. I. Greening and 

 Roxbury Russet are slow-growing, low-headed trees ; hence 

 they do not do well root-grafted. The Baldwin, on the con- 

 trary, is a very rapid grower, and soon establishes itself and 

 grows away rapidly enough. There is in all seedlings an in- 

 herent vigor which many hybrid or choice varieties do not 

 possess. This may be seen wherever seedlings of any kind 

 are grown. The plant once established, and then budded or 

 grafted, receives no check. Root-grafting, by taking the 

 whole of the root, is nothing more than s/ocA'-grafting at the 

 surface of the ground, and Mr. B. don't certainly intend to 

 call it by any other name. What is meant and what is prac- 

 tised by everybody, is to take a root of a seedling and cut it 

 into pieces, four or six inches long, Avhich are then whip- 



