98 
It is due to an observing Ballarat (Victoria) nurseryman to first 
introduce the winter Majetin as a blight-proof stock for the apple. 
The roots of this stock are, however, too fibrous, and not sufficiently 
penetrating for an ideal stock except in friable soil, and it was soon 
superseded by the more robust Northern Spy, which is now adopted 
as a blight-proof stock not only in Australia, but is now gaining 
favour in America as well. 
There are, besides, several other blight-proof kinds of apples, 
but except for special conditions none excel the Northern Spy; 
amongst these the Duchess of Oldenburg gives good results on 
sandy souls. 
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 two feet apart between the 
rows and one foot 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 dor- 
mant 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 im 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. 
