PROPAGATION OF VARIETIES. 



29 



grow, it is found to thrive admirably budded on the Almond. We have 

 already mentioned that in clay soils too heavy and moist for the Peach, 

 it succeeds very well if worked on the Plum. M. Floss, a Prussian 

 gardener, succeeded in growing line pears in very sandy soils, where it 

 was nearly impossible to raise them before, by grafting them on the 

 Mountain Ash, a nearly related tree, which thrives on the driest and 

 lightest soil. 



A variety of fruit which is found rather tender for a certain climate, 

 or a particular neighborhood, is frequently acclimatized by grafting it on 

 a native stock of very hardy habits. Thus near the sea-coast, where the 

 finer plums thrive badly, we have seen them greatly improved by being 

 worked on the beech-plum, a native stock adapted to the spot ; and the 

 foreign grape is more luxuriant when grafted on our native stocks. 



A slight effect is sometimes produced by the stock on the quality of 

 the fruit. A few sorts of pear are superior in flavor, but many are also 

 inferior, when grafted on the Quince, while they are more gritty on the 

 thorn. The Green Gage, a Plum of great delicacy of flavor, varies con- 

 siderably upon different stocks; and Apples raised on the crab, and pears 

 on the Mountain Ash, are said to keep longer than when grown on their 

 own roots. 



In addition to the foregoing, a diseased stock should always be 

 avoided, as it will communicate disease slowly to the graft, unless the 

 latter is a variety of sufficient vigor to renew the health of the stock, 

 which is but seldom the case. 



The cultivator will gather from these remarks that, in a favorable 

 climate and soil, if we desire the greatest growth, duration, and develop- 

 ment in any fruit (and this applies to orchards generally), we should 

 choose a stock of a closely similar nature to the graft — an apple 

 seedling for an apple ; a pear seedling for a pear. If we desire dwarf 

 trees that come into bearing very young, and take little space in a gar- 

 den, we employ for a stock an allied species of slower growth. If our 

 soil or climate is unfavorable, we use a stock which is adapted to the 

 soil, or which will, by its hardier roots, endure the cold. 



The influence of the graft on the stock seems scarcely to extend be- 

 yond the power of communicating disease. A graft taken from a tree 

 enfeebled by disease will recover with difficulty, even if grafted on 

 healthy stocks for a dozen times in repeated succession. And when the 

 disease is an inherent or hereditary one, it will certainly communicate it 

 to the stock. We have seen the yellows, from a diseased peach-tree, 

 propagated through hundreds of individuals by budding, and the stock 

 and graft both perish together from its effects. Hence the importance, 

 to nurserymen especially, of securing healthy grafts, and working only 

 upon healthy stocks. 



Propagation by Cuttings. 



Propagating by cuttings, as applied to fruit-trees, consists in causing 

 a shoot of the previous season's wood to grow, by detaching it from the 

 parent tree at a suitable season, and planting it in the ground under fa- 

 vorable circumstances. 



In this case, instead of uniting itself by woody matter to another 

 tree, as does the scion in grafting, the descending woody matter becomes 

 roots at the lower end, and the cutting of which is then a new and entire 



