57 



These are grown, or at least used to be, in great 

 quantities in the lower part of Surrey, in what are 

 called stock nurseries," purposely for the trade. 

 The finer French peaches, however, in our younger 

 days, were worked on a stock of more delicate habits, 

 known by the name of the pear-plum-stock. This 

 stock was a substitute for twice working, which was 

 in somewhat general practice about fifty or sixty 

 years since. The course then pursued was to bud 

 the common plum-stocks with some gross or robust 

 kind of peach, as the Royal George, and then to bud 

 the delicate kinds of French peaches on this stronger 

 kind. 



"Whatever kind of stock be used, we would system- 

 atically transplant them twice before they were bud- 

 ded, and once afterwards. We hold that abundance 

 of surface roots on undug borders are the best gua- 

 rantee of permanent success. Indeed, we conceive 

 the essential difference between the employment of 

 common plum-stocks and those of the almond, or 

 from the peach kernel, lies in the different character 

 of the roots, together with the comparative ratio at 

 which the ascending sap is furnished — the plum 

 being more inclined to tap roots ; and unless some- 

 what tamed by a preparatory course, liable to sur- 

 charge the system of the tree with fluids. It should 

 not be forgotten, moreover, that the deeper root of 

 the plum creates a tendency to late growth in the 



