3i6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 228. 



the graft. Many of the statements are contradictory, and 

 much of the testimony has to be rejected. Some of the 

 changes said to have been observed are plainly imaginary, 

 and Mr. Crozier has allowed them to appear simply to 

 shovi' what beliefs have been held. Careful and well- 

 directed experiment will, of course, be necessary before the 

 points involved are settled, and we are pleased to observe 

 that Mr. Crozier himself promises to conduct some of these 

 trials. But, although this evidence reported is not all of 

 very serious value, there are altogether forty pages of quo- 

 tations published, and a careful examination of them gives 

 abundant proof that both stock and graft do influence each 

 other's growth in very many ways, and Mr. Crozier gives 

 the following conclusions which he has deduced from a 

 careful study of the existing evidence : 



Size and Vigor.— The stock and graft each imparts to the 

 other something of its own degree of vigor or lack of vigor. 

 This influence is greater the first year or two than afterward. 

 If the difference in vigor is great, both stock and graft may ul- 

 timately perish. The dwarfing which in certain cases results 

 from grafting does not always arise from a diminished supply 

 of food, but often indirectly from earlier and more abundant 

 fruitfulness. 



Form. — The alterations in the forms of trees, as the result of 

 grafting, arise mainly from increased or diminished vigor. 

 This probably applies also to alterations in the form of the 

 roots, vigorous roots having larger, longer and fewer branches 

 than feeble ones. Many of the observed changes, however, in 

 the form of the roots of grafted trees, are probably due to the 

 trees having rooted from the graft. The observed changes in 

 the form of the fruit of the graft, causing it to resemble that of 

 the stock, are as yet too few to be considered other than acci- 

 dental. 



Fruitfulness. — The most important of all the results of 

 grafting is increased fruitfulness. This is brought about (i) by 

 the mere process of g^rafting, which operates in the same man- 

 ner as a ligature," or the removal of a ring of bark ; (2) by di- 

 minished vigor through defective nourishment from a feebler 

 stock ; (3) by increased vigor imparted by vigorous stocks to 

 varieties which are naturally too feeble to bear heavily. 



Precocity. — Earlier, as well as more abundant, fruiting is 

 induced by the act of grafting ; also by diminished vigor due to 

 dwarf or feeble stocks. The precocity of trees on dwarf stocks 

 is not, however, always directly due to diminished vigor, but 

 largely to the habit of early bearing imparted to the graft by 

 the stock in a manner not fully understood. Probably the 

 diminished supply of sap derived from dwarf or feeble stocks, 

 and its consequent richer character, is an important factor in 

 inducing the earlier and more abundant fruitfulness. 



Season of Growth and Maturity — The stock and the 

 graft each modifies the period of vegetation of the other when 

 their normal times of 1>eginning or closing their season's 

 growth are different. Thus, a late variety grafted upon an 

 early stock begins and ends its season's growth earlier than it 

 otherwise would. This alteration in habit appears in some 

 cases to affect the time of ripening of the fruit. 



Hardiness. — There is some evidence that hardy stocks in- 

 crease the hardiness of the grafts. This, however, does not 

 appear to be by the transfer of any inherent hardiness peculiar 

 to the variety, but to result from the increased or diminished 

 vigor in certain cases or an earlier maturity in varieties which, 

 upon their own roots, are inclined to grow too late in the season. 

 The advantage usually sought in hardy stocks is to furnish 

 hardy stems able to resist injury to the bark by sun-scald, etc., 

 and to supply roots of uniform hardiness in place of those of 

 ordinary seedlings which are frequently less hardy than those 

 of most cultivated varieties. Conversely, a hardy graft has 

 been known to increase the hardiness of the stock, but 

 known examples of this are rare, and usually no such in- 

 fluence can be observed. 



Adaptation TO Soil. — "Favored by the influence of the stock, 

 many species are able to thrive in unfavorable soils, and often 

 in those in which they could not live if upon their own roots." 

 There is in this fact no evidence that the character of either 

 stock or graft is modified. In some cases, however, the de- 

 mands of a vigorous or fruitful graft may render the roots of 

 the stock more exacting as to soil, so that they require one 

 which is more fertile or of more definite character in which to 

 maintain in health the grafted tree than would be required for 

 a tree of the same kind as the stock growing in its natural state. 



Color. — An alteration in color, as the result of grafting, may 

 occur (i) by the direct transfer of coloring matter, as in the ex- 



ample of the white and yellow carrots ; (2) by earlier or later 

 maturity, earlier maturity inducing more heightened color ; 

 (3) by the restoration of normal nutrition to a "variegated" 

 stock or cion ; (4) by the transfer to a healthy stock of the 

 disease known as variegation. There is little evidence that 

 the characteristic color of fruits is modified by grafting. 



Flavor. — The testimony is abundant that fruits may acquire 

 the flavor of the fruit of the stocks on which they are grafted ; 

 this has been especially noticed in the case of sour Apples 

 grafted upon sweet varieties. Other modifications in the flavor 

 and texture of the fruit have been noticed which do not cause 

 them to resemble the fruits of the stock. The operation of 

 grafting itself often causes the fruit to be larger and more 

 succulent, and to ripen earlier ; this latter change, when it 

 causes more perfect ripening, improves the flavor. We can 

 say that certain stocks improve the flavor of fruit borne by 

 the graft, while others deteriorate it, and that it is probable 

 that stocks bearing highly flavored fruits intensify the flavor 

 of the fruit borne by the graft, while stocks bearing fruits 

 which are sweet or mild in quality diminish it ; but, notwith- 

 standing the abundant testimony to this end, direct and careful 

 experiments are needed. 



Disease. — The evidence is conclusive that certain diseases 

 may be conveyed from stock to graft, and vice versa. This 

 applies not only to diseases caused by parasitic fungi, but also 

 to the peculiar form of malnutrition known as variegation. It 

 will be observed that nearly all the best-established changes 

 which are noted are due to altered nutrition, and though they 

 sometimes cause the stock and graft each to acquire some of 

 the features of the other, these alterations extend mainly to 

 such points as vigor, color and period of vegetation, and in 

 no case can they be considered to be of the nature of hybridism. 



Fruit Trees in Flower. 



I AM advised by friends to cut down a huge Pound Sweet 

 Apple-tree which stands among the shade-trees on my 

 lawn, but in my judgment none of the rare and beautiful 

 trees which are called ornamentals surpass this one when in 

 flower with its exquisite shades of white and red. The love of 

 the Japanese for Plum and Clierry-trees amounts to a passion 

 and almost a worship, and this, not because of their fruit, but 

 of their flowers. During the season of apple-blossoms I have 

 driven about the country a great deal and made notes of some 

 remarkable developments of high-colored flowers in certain 

 individual trees. I found one growing near the roadside with 

 flowers of a fairly dark purplish red, a tint I have never seen 

 before. Another tree I have found which bears blossorns 

 closely approaching scarlet in color. My purpose is to secure 

 cions of these trees and have them grafted next spring, for 

 as flowers they deserve to rank among our richest. Certainly 

 it is worth while to collect examples of such variations so that 

 we can see apple-blossoms carried through their widest range 

 of color. 



The Peach is always beautiful in flower, but occasionally 

 some individual tree is almost startling in its attractiveness. 

 The rule seems to be tliat the finer sorts of Peaches have less 

 conspicuous bloom. The very handsomest trees in flower are 

 the wild ones along the wayside in Kentucky, Missouri and 

 Arkansas. Some of these ought to be selected and treated 

 purely as flowering trees. Cherries, so far as I know, do not 

 have blossoms which sport into colors, but a Morello is suf- 

 ficiently attractive in white. It is a complete globe of flowers 

 and small enough to occupy a place in an ordinary shrubbery. 

 Then, too, it has a capacity for blooming when very young, 

 and a tree three years old will burst into a miniature flower- 

 garden three or four feet in diameter. 



Pear-trees appeal to us for the beauty of their foliage as well 

 as their flowers. This is the one fruit tree with rich glossy 

 leaves, and sometimes it has a noble and unique habit, while 

 in the autumn it gives us unsurpassed colors of foliage. The 

 Buffam is one of the best trees to plant where a fastigiate 

 form is needed, and it is unrivaled for the crimson and purple 

 of its October foliage, besides which it is a delightful tree in 

 bloom. Some of my own trees, twenty feet high and no more 

 than six or seven feet in diameter, form a pyramid or sugar- 

 loaf of perfect white in flower. Of course the flowers of all 

 these trees are evanescent, but so are those of most other 

 flowering trees and shrubs, and certainly in planting trees for 

 the beauty of their flowers these fruit trees should not be en- 

 tirely neglected. 



Indeed, the whole family of Rosaceae is eminent for the 

 freedom with which they yield delicate flowers. Some sorts 

 of Strawberries can be used very effectively as edgings, and 

 after the bloom is over the show of fruit is very pleasant to 



