148 GRAFTAGE. 



cherry trees are not dwarfs thereby. If, however, the 

 grower were to head-in his Mahaleb-worked cherries 

 each year, in the same way as he is advised to treat 

 his dwarf pears, he would be able to have dwarf trees. 

 In like manner, the plum upon the Myrobalan plum, the 

 peach upon the plum, the apple upon the Doucin or even 

 upon the Paradise, soon cease to be dwarfs if allowed 

 to grow to their utmost. The pear upon the quince 

 affords the most complete dwarf fruit tree which we have, 

 but even this soon ceases to be a true dwarf if heading-in 

 is neglected. 



There are many varieties of plants which are dwarf by 

 nature, and they therefore do not require to be worked 

 upon slow-growing stocks. The Paradise apple is itself 

 such a natural dwarf, and was originally a seedling. (For 

 an account of dwarf apples, see Lodeman, Bulletin 116, 

 Cornell Experiment Station.) Dwarf spruces, pines, vi- 

 burnums, beans, dahlias, and scores of other plants are 

 well known. Such dwarfs are generally propagated by 

 means of cuttings, although some of them, as the garden 

 vegetables and annual flowers, reproduce themselves from 

 seeds. The particular methods of dealing with these vari- 

 eties are detailed under the respective species in the next 

 chapter. 



Root-grafted vs. Budded Trees.^There has been a most 

 controversial discussion of the relative merits of root-grafted 

 and budded fruit trees these many years. For the most 

 part, this discussion has been unprofitable, for there has 

 been litttle earnest effort to arrive at any just or exact 

 method of comparison. The disputants have too often dealt 

 in generalized statements, and it must be said that preju- 

 dice, and the desire to advocate the particular stock which 

 one is growing, are not unknown to these discussions. 

 Some experiments have been tried for the purpose of deter- 

 mining the relative merits of the two methods of propaga- 

 tion, but none of the experimenters seem to have really 

 analyzed the subject or to have arrived at any truthful 



