358 THE PARADISE, DOUCIN, AND CRAB STOCKS. 



much longer time to come into bearing, and the attempts to 

 keep it of a size suited to gardens by pruning, pinching, 

 and root-pruning which may be seen everywhere, are all 

 efforts thrown away. 



Thus it will be seen there are three distinct stocks, each 

 suiting distinct purposes, and that those who experiment 

 upon or criticise the cordon system of Apple- growing with- 

 out acting upon or bearing these facts in mind as the 

 greatest and most important of all in connexion with the 

 subject, may be likened to an individual attempting to study 

 the moon by gazing through the wrong end of his telescope. 



Of these three stocks, the one which has been most 

 abused and least known, but which will yet prove the most 

 valuable of all as a garden stock for the Apple, is the true 

 French Paradise. When it is fairly tried it will prove to 

 be of all stocks yet known the hardiest, most dwarfing 

 in its effects, and most powerful in inducing early fertility. 

 This stock, which has hitherto been characterized in Eng- 

 land as a thing quite worthless and contemptible — only fit 

 for growing in pots, and such toy gardening — will, if planted 

 in the coldest and wettest of soils, instead of sending long 

 and hungry roots down into the sour bowels of the cold 

 clayey earth, like the Crab, and in a lesser degree the Doucin, 

 keep its wig-like mass of small roots near the surface, and 

 without root-pruning bear fruit long before the others, even 

 if they receive every attention. The above is the way to 

 best test its powers of withstanding cold, and the other 

 merits I claim for it : on all ordinarily rich and cool soils it 

 will be found to succeed perfectly without root-pruning of 

 any kind. Amateurs and gardeners throughout the length 

 and breadth of these islands have only to try it to prove 

 that instead of sickening and dying in our cool climate, and 

 on our moist soils, its general adoption will lead to one of 

 the greatest improvements our garden fruit culture has ever 

 undergone. It is necessary to observe that in trying this stock 

 healthy plants should be secured to begin with. It has been 

 ascertained that some of our nurserymen who have tried this 

 stock import the Paradise from France in a very small state, 

 and then graft it soon after it arrives. The consequence is 



