76 HOKTICULTUEAL MANUAL. 



too wet the young wood will absorb water enough to 

 change the cell starch to sugar water to some extent. In 

 spring top-working in the orchard scions that seem a little 

 dry will unite and grow, while those that show a callus at 

 the base will fail. If designed for top-working in the 

 spring, or for spring-budding, it is best toward spring to 

 bury them in the sawdust on top of the ice in an ice-house. 



81. Taking Up and Packing the Stocks. — If grown at 

 home the apple, plum, cherry, and other stocks should 

 stand in nursery as late in autumn as possible, and after 

 taking up they should be heeled in on dry ground outside, 

 with some straw over the tops to still more perfectly ripen 

 the roots. As cold weather comes on at the North they 

 are stored in the • cellar without cutting back the tops, as 

 perfectly ripened roots are essential to the most perfect 

 success in root- or crown-grafting in the graft-room. In 

 storing the stocks they are ranked up in a corner of the 

 cellar with earth or sand between the layers of roots. If 

 the seedlings or stocks are ordered, explicit instructions 

 should be given as to the taking up and handling. If 

 taken up too early and the tops cut back for shipment the 

 faulty handling can be detected at once, after some experi- 

 ence, by inspection of the roots. Imported stocks are 

 usually well ripened, as the growers know by experience 

 that imperfectly ripened stocks will not stand the long 

 transportation and that they will arrive in poor condition. 



82. Short Roots and Long Scions. — Much has been said 

 and written during recent years in regard to piece roots 

 and whole roots in apple-root grafting. As noted (47) 

 many of the commercial stocks used are not hardy in some 

 parts of the Union. In mild climates the use of the whole 

 root, or at least the upper part of the seedling root, will 

 give stronger growth the first year the root-grafts are set 

 in nursery. But experience has shown that when a given 



