216 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



or Common Plum, but flourishes upon Damas Noir, Mussel, or 

 Myrobalan. This brings me back to the idea previously thrown 

 out, that our cultivated plums cannot be all of common descent, 

 or they would probably all thrive upon the same stock. To many 

 people this subject of stocks may seem a matter of small moment, 

 but it is one which frequently carries results that are far from 

 pleasing. For example, an acquaintance of mine bought 250 

 damsons for planting in the North of England ; they proved to 

 be worked upon a stock which is not hardy in the north, and 

 although they were fine trees, they were killed by a severe winter, 

 two years after planting. My father once purchased a number 

 of damsons, worked upon the Mussel stock, and, although they 

 appeared to be good trees, they all dwindled away year by year 

 and had to be replanted. I will not go further into detail, but it 

 must be obvious that this is a matter of importance, and it is |one 

 which in some quarters has been much neglected by propagators. 

 Before leaving this subject I may just say that the one stock 

 needed by all cultivators is a real dwarfing stock, which, for the 

 plum, would correspond with the " Quince " for pears, and the 

 " Paradise " for apples ; such a stock is yet undiscovered, and is 

 much to be desired ; of course some of the stocks I have named 

 will carry trees of much more vigorous habit than others, and 

 the intelligent nurseryman does not dream of using the same 

 stock for his trained wall and espalier trees as that which he uses 

 for standard trees; at the same time the difference is not so great 

 as we could wish, and a really dwarfing stock would be a great 

 boon. 



Budding is done about July, when the bark will run readily 

 from the stock and the buds are sufficiently ripe. I need not go 

 into the detail of the operation, as everyone is conversant with 

 it, but I may say in passing that no matter how well the buds 

 are put in, unless they are properly tied afterwards and a wrap 

 of the tying material passed just above the bud, so as to properly 

 hold together the lips of the incision on the stock, the result 

 will be failure. If buds are inserted too early they will in all 

 probability make growth the same season (which is undesirable), 

 and if inserted too late there is great difficulty in getting them in 

 properly, and very few will grow ; what is needed is just a suffi- 

 cient movement of sap to permit of the bark running freely and to 

 nourish the newly inserted bud, without exciting it into growth. 



