94 



amongst these the Duchess of Oldenburg gives good results on 

 s indy soils. 



For the purpose of dwarfing, the trees have to be double- 

 grafted, and the structure rests upon Spy roots', French Paradise 

 stem, and any fancied top required. Blight-proof stocks are raised 

 by uniting together by means of the whip and tongue, graft two 

 lengths three or four inches long, and of the thickness of a pencil, 

 of Northern Spy wood and roots. The union is then tightly bound 

 with raphia fibre or with waxed calico, and when a number of grafts 

 have been prepared they are put out in nursery beds to callus. 

 The work of uniting root and wood can be done indoors, and is often 

 performed by lamp-light round a table at night early in the spring. 

 When planted out they are set in rows, 2ft. apart between the rows, 

 and 1ft. in the rows ; one bud only is left out of the ground. With 

 the advent of warm weather the scions begin to shoot, and all the 

 shoots except a strong straight one rubbed off. If Northern Spy 

 trees are required nothing further is done, but if other varieties of 

 apples are required these young plants are used as stocks, and are 

 budded six inches or so above ground. As already mentioned in 

 the chapter on budding, these buds are allowed to remain dormant 

 all through the winter, when the stock is partly cut off and, as a 

 result, the bud forced into growth. In early districts, and if the 

 budding has also been done early, the bud may be started into 

 growth directly it has taken, and the young plant may thus be 

 set out the following planting season. 



Pear Stock. 



On no account use pear suckers ; they prove a source of trouble 

 to the orchardist, as they themselves sucker most abundantly, and 

 often prove to be more shy bearers than pears of the same varieties 

 worked on seedling stock or on quince. The best pear stocks are 

 raised from seeds of the more vigorous and more blight- resistant 

 sorts ; they need not be the best eating sorts. The seeds are raised in 

 sandy loam ; if too thick in the spring they are thinned out, and 

 the strongest left to grow ; these are budded the subsequent winter 

 with any particular variety it is desired to propagate. Dwarf pears 

 are raised by working the pear scion on the quince stock. For this 

 purpose rooted cuttings of a vigorous variety, the Angiers, is used. 

 These are slow growers, but produce at an early age very fine fruit. 

 Some varieties, as the Duchess d'Angouleme and the Bartlett, do 

 particularly well on quince roots ; whilst, on the other hand, with 

 some other sorts, as the Sechel, the quality is not so good on the 

 quince. As a rule, dwarf pears on quince roots require a moister 

 and stiffer soil than the standard on pear roots. When manuring 

 these pears, the fertilisers should, besides, be placed closer to the 

 butt of the quince stock, as its roots are not so searching as are 

 those of the pear. 



For sandy soil, such as occurs on the littoral of this State, the 

 Oriental pears (Chinese and Japanese) or their hybrids are better 

 stocks than either pear seedlings or the quince. These varieties do 



