388 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
duration of its profitable life, though at present such conclusions must 
be drawn with great caution. The same applies to the facts revealed 
by the height and stoutness of the four-year-old cordons. It should 
here be mentioned that the main shoot or leader of the cordons has 
never been pruned back, because it would have been impossible 
in that case to measure accurately the relative heights. The lateral 
growth or " breast wood " was treated normally and " spurred " in 
summer and winter. 
The selection of a particular type should be a matter for agreement 
between the grower and the nurseryman. In the first place, it must 
be remembered that the best stock for the nurseryman need not 
invariably be ultimately the best for the grower. The nurseryman 
rightly aims at producing a vigorous young tree in as short a time 
and with as little handling as possible. The commercial grower 
demands the strongest-looking young tree as being ipso facto the 
most profitable and the nurseryman endeavours to supply that 
demand. But it is a matter for consideration whether ultimate 
maturity and hardiness may not be governed by other things besides 
very early vigour of wood-growth. What the grower really wants 
the nurseryman will be willing to give, provided the grower recognizes 
the value of a standardized stock. That the private gardener's 
requirements of a stock will differ from those of commercial growers 
seems certain. That a great deal more use might be made of the 
varietal differences of stocks in relation to scions from parents of 
strong and weak constitution is probable. Soil and climatic con- 
ditions are also likely to dictate suitability to some extent. 
Problems such as these are at once suggested by a comparative 
study of the Paradise types. They can only be solved satisfactorily 
by extensive trials, which will occupy most of the available ground 
at East Mailing, and also require trial plots in districts widely divergent 
in soil conditions. Collections of Plum, Pear, and Cherry stocks have 
also been made, and a systematic trial of them on lines somewhat 
similar to Apple stocks is already in progress. 
XV. Comparative Rooting Vigour. — Table VI. 
A. The One-Year Layers. — The comparison of rooting vigour judged 
from the readiness with which one-year layers of the various types 
root adventitiously suggests that very important differences are likely 
to exist in the ultimate utility of the Paradise types. 
Over a period of three years the main features in the rooting capacity 
of one-year layers have remained remarkably constant. It may be 
argued that nurserymen are not generally in the habit of using one-year 
layers or of severing them from the parent stool at that age, and that 
therefore the present descriptions do not show the stock as it is really 
" worked." This is quite true, and it was not the intention to describe 
in the first place the one or two year bedded stock. The object is 
simply to afford a common ground for comparison as to readiness to 
