AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 205 



In the case of apples and pears it is better to obtain seed for 

 raising stocks from the more hai-dy inferior varieties than from 

 choice kinds. Pear seedlings, being liable to injury from the 

 first winter's cold, should either be covered v?ith earth in the 

 fall, or taken up and kept in a cellar, and set out again in spring, 

 in which case they may be multiplied by setting out separately 

 the pieces of roots obtained in shortening. Fig. 89 a, allowing 

 their upper ends just to appear above the surface, and settling 

 the earth to them firmly, and very thinly mulching them. 



Cherries also may be raised from the common black or Maz- 

 zard, or the honey cherry. 



Plums which are to be used as stocks may be of any kinds 

 that have a moderately free growth. The plum is often used 

 in unfavorable soils and climates as a stock for the peach as 

 well as for the apricot and plum, and in our more favorable lo- 

 calities the plum and apricot may be safely and advantageous- 

 ly worked upon the peach, at least if it be budded low, so that 

 the whole of the stock may be covered when it is transplanted. 

 At a short distance from the plum-tree referred to above, as 

 upon a sucker stock, stand two others which were planted at 

 the same time, some twelve years ago, one of them being bud- 

 ded on a seedling plum stock, and the other upon peach. Both 

 appear thoroughly and equally vigorous. The peach as a 

 stock for the plum would therefore seem worthy of careful and 

 repeated trial. 



Peach stocks, whether for plum or peach propagation, should 

 not be raised from pits of unhealthy fruit, but from trees that 

 are not in any way diseased, obtained cither by careful selec- 

 tion in your own locality, or from regions not yet invaded by 

 the prevailing maladies of the peach-tree. As these are usual- 

 ly budded in the seed-row, it might be well to start the pits in 

 the spring before planting them, and nip the young tap-root 

 an inch or two. See page 365. The bitter almond, raised in 

 the same manner, is sometimes used as a stock for the peach, 

 particularly by the French, being supposed to render it more 

 fruitful, probably by slightly dwarfing it. All other seedling 

 stocks should be transplanted at one, or, at the most, two years 

 old, the roots being shortened to four or six inches, and the 



