DOUBLE GRAFTING OF FEUIT TEEES 133 



situations double-grafted trees should be planted, 

 formed in this way — the common Morello cherry should 

 be budded on the Mahaleb stick, and after two years it 

 should be grafted with some kind of Bigarreau, Heart, 

 or Guigne cherry; it will form a small or moderate- 

 sized tree, and bear abundantly. In cultivating cherry 

 trees in soils inimical to their well-doing, abundance of 

 chalk or lime rubbish should be mixed with the earth 

 to the depth of two feet. 



Double grafting of apples is of very inferior im- 

 portance as compared with the same operation on pears 

 or cherries, for our English Paradise stocks give the 

 inost perfect health and fertility in nearly all soils. 

 Still there may be some peculiar positions where the 

 soils are very light and poor, iu which strong, robust 

 sorts of the crab stock are required to make healthy 

 fruitful trees. In such cases it is better to graft such 

 sorts as the Hawthornden, Manx Codlin, and Small's 

 Admirable on thrifty crab stocks, /and when two years 

 old re-graft them with choice dessert kinds ; all double 

 grafting is best done when the first graft is two years 

 old. It is to be regretted that English cultivators, 

 more particularly nurserymen, have not turned their 

 attention to the benefit choice fruit trees derive from 

 having the proper kind of stock selected for them, or 

 from being double grafted. Mr. George Lindley, an old 

 author, seems to have turned his attention to fruit tree 

 stocks more than any other nurseryman of his day ; still 

 he knew only those grown by the nurserymen of his 



