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FRUIT TREE STOCKS. 



Of all botanical families, three the Rosacese, which comprise 

 most deciduous fruit trees and a few evergreens ; the Aurantiacete, 

 which include citrus trees ; and the vitis under which grape vines are 

 grouped lend themselves best to the operations of grafting. Even 

 then, although the rose, the apple, pear, plum, peach, almond, 

 cherry, and many others all belong to the order of rosaceous plants, 

 still there are amongst these, as has already been stated, affinities 

 which make successful grafting practicable between a few of them 

 only. The rose requires a briar or some form of rose stock ; the 

 apple, the wild crab or some form of apple stock ; the hawthorn, 

 the pear, quince, and medlar can be more or less successfully worked 

 on one another's stocks ; the peach, nectarine, apricot, plum, and 

 almond, although doing best on their own stock, are likewise inter- 

 changeable. Which of these several stocks answers best under 

 particular conditions is a consideration which will be dealt with 

 under several of the headings which follow. 



Apple Stock. 



The apple tree on its own root is now-a-days hardly ever 

 grown. In Europe that fruit has for time immemorial been worked 

 on the sturdy crab stock, or on seedling stock. This practice, how- 

 ever, has little to recommend itself to, as there is no advantage to 

 be gained in propagating from transplanted seedling stocks which 

 the Americans call "whole root" stocks, as compared with the 

 ordinary root grafts. 



Where the object is the " dwarfing " of the apple, the French 

 Paradise stock is used ; this is also a European wild apple which is 

 propagated by layering. The advantages of the dwarf, it might be 

 said in passing, are closer planting and as near as 10ft. apart ; 

 greater ease in pruning, spraying and picking ; better resistance to 

 the winds of autumn, which cause the fruit of high trees to fall 

 before maturity. Although these advantages appear striking, 

 it may also be said that tree on dwarf stock are better suited to 

 the amateur's garden than to the orchard owner who plants trees 

 for the sake of the profit to be derived from them. 



In respect of raising apple trees, however, the old country has 

 a lesson to learn from the Australian grower. The European 

 methods proved a failure in Australia, where the woolly aphis 

 (Schizoneura lanigera} cankered the tree and ultimately killed it. 

 It is due to an observing Ballarat (Vic.) nurseryman to first 

 introduce the winter Majetin as a blight-proof stock for the apple. 

 The roots of this stock are, however, too fibrous, and not sufficiently 

 penetrating for an ideal stock, and it was soon superseded by the 

 more robust Northern Spy, which is now adopted as a blight-proof 

 stock not only in Australia, but is now gaining favour in America 

 as well. 



There are besides several other blight- proof kinds of apples, 

 but except for special conditions none excel the Northern Spy ; 



