102 



OFFICIAL EEPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



are planted, and afterwards for several years. Apple trees on this stock 

 bear at three years old and continue this prolific habit. The fruit is as 

 large and fine as that on standard trees, and the tree has many advan- 

 tages in being of small size, such as saving labor at picking and prun- 

 ing time, and in spraying for codling moth. Dwarf apple trees are 

 planted quite close, not more than ten or twelve feet apart. 



Much that has been said of the apple applies to the pear, except that 

 the need of care is intensified by reason of the aphis in this case being 

 fatal to the tree. French pear seedlings have been badly infested with 

 aphis for years, and their importation should be stopped. Seeds of the 

 Seckel pear produce fine seedlings, and such varieties should be grown 

 for that purpose, the pear itself being dried and the seed saved. Seed- 

 lings of Japanese pears have been used for some years; they possess 

 great vigor, but their adaptability as stocks has not yet been fully 

 demonstrated. They have been used mostly in the Southern and 

 Southwestern States. Pears of this class, such as Kieffer, Le Conte, 

 Mikado, etc., root readily from cuttings, and such are used for stocks. 

 It is not to be recommended, however, that cuttings be used for stocks in 

 any case where a good seedling can be had. 



Cherry seedlings are mostly imported, and while nurserymen used to 

 raise their own stocks from trees of Mahaleb and Mazzard, these have 

 long since been grafted over and the French stock used. So far the 

 only pest coming with them has been an aphis which appears on the 

 leaves soon after the plants begin to grow. The Mazzard stock is most 

 in favOr and is undoubtedly the best in deep soils. Where the land has 

 a clay subsoil and is shallower, the Mahaleb is better adapted, and this 

 stock seems to have stood the drought of the last two seasons better 

 than the Mazzard. If this is generally so, then it is the more valuable 

 stock. 



The peach is budded almost entirely upon peach seedlings, and but 

 little need be said here, except that seedling or natural pits are the 

 best to use. I have used the peach-almond, but there are few of these 

 trees left in the State. Stocks from this seed were of unusual vigor. 

 Hardshell almonds are used by some and are well adapted to dry, deep 

 , soils. 



The apricot is budded also on the peach, and on its own seedling, the 

 former being generally preferable. 



The best stock for plums is more of a debatable question. Theoreti- 

 cally a fruit is better worked on a seedling of its own kind, but it is 

 certain that some of these fruits succeed better on the peach. Seed- 

 lings of the Green Gage plum make good stocks, but these were scarce, 

 so any European or Domestica plum seed was used in the early horti- 

 cultural days of California. The Myrobolan stock was introduced 

 some twenty or more years ago, the St. Julien and Mirabelle being also 



