SUGGESTIONS FOR RIGHT SELECTION OF APPLE STOCKS. 257 



SUGGESTIONS FOR THE RIGHT SELECTION OF 

 APPLE STOCKS. 



By Ronald G. Hatton, M.A., Director, Wye College Fruit 

 Experiment Station, East Mailing. 



[Read September 23, 1919 ; Mr. J. Hudson, V.M.H., in the Chair.] 



During the past two and a half years several reports have appeared, 

 from both Bristol and East Mailing, on the subject of Free and Paradise 

 Apple Stocks. The reports of the researches carried out are to be 

 found in the Journal of the R.H.S., vol. xlii. p. 361, and vol. xliv. 

 p. 89, in the Bristol Annual Report for 1917, and in the special 

 pamphlet on Paradise Stocks issued from East Mailing in January 

 1919 and widely published in the weekly fruit papers. 



Probably a stage has been reached which will necessitate a waiting 

 period before any further pronouncements can be made as to the ulti- 

 mate value and influence of individual types of root system, because 

 we are now bound to wait for the verdict of fruiting trees upon various 

 soils. These trees are yet in their infancy. 



However, the first stages of the work have shown so conclusively 

 the vital influence of a good or bad root-stock that the matter cannot 

 be allowed to rest for the next five years until these final tests have 

 yielded up their results. The questions are, What can be done mean- 

 while to make the best use of the knowledge available with regard 

 to apple stocks ? and, How can we begin to put our stool beds in order ? 

 There are very many definite indications of the value of different 

 types of stock at the present moment, of which a good deal of use can 

 be made at once. It is the purpose of this paper briefly to state the 

 present position, and to outline those indications which are sufficiently 

 constant to form a basis for judgment. 



The Popular Idea. — The first essential is to disabuse ourselves 

 of the popular or text-book conception of apple stocks. Those who 

 handled hundreds of thousands of stocks must have realized the 

 incompleteness of the conception, though their catalogues gave 

 little hint of it. In the popular mind apple stocks were of three 

 types : 



1. Paradise or dwarfing stocks with fibrous and surface roots. 

 These were raised by layers, and were suitable only for bush and 

 garden- trained trees. 



2. Free or strong-growing stocks raised from seedlings of various 

 sorts, mere chance crosses, suitable for standard trees and weak- 

 growing varieties. 



3. Crab stocks raised either from pips or suckers of the ' True Wild 

 Crab.' supposed to be especially hardy and suited to the same purposes 



