PARADISE APPLE STOCKS, 
389 
root in the initial stages. Moreover, it must be remembered that 
nurserymen do not always practise the annual method of frequent 
moulding up which has been employed in these experiments, so that 
many of the one-year growths or layers thus produced are as good or 
better than much of the one or two year bedded stuff in commercial use, 
which has often remained on the parent stool for several years before 
being taken off and bedded, without having made nearly as much 
adventitious rooting. The encouragement of natural rooting is of 
course aided by the early and repeated process of drawing earth over 
the bent-out annual layers.* 
Hence our one-year rooted growths taken from the stools will 
appear, perhaps, abnormal to the nurseryman, as they are generally 
better furnished with roots than most of the shoots, taken from 
stools, that are annually bedded for making stocks. Our stools have 
annually been completely stripped of all growths. Nevertheless our 
one-year layers, which have all been treated exactly alike, afford an 
admirable ground for comparison as to the tendency of each variety 
in our soil towards adventitious rooting. 
One-year bedded stocks of all the types, raised according to the most 
common method, have also been examined and they appear to exhibit 
relatively much the same rooting characteristics, though the rooting 
is not generally so vigorous as on the one-year layers. On the other 
hand their development is perhaps more mature. 
However, it seems likely that one year of careful layering might 
produce a sturdier stock and also save a good deal of subsequent hand- 
ling and labour. 
As regards the degree of constancy exhibited throughout in these 
results, the figures speak. The general tendency is for shoots of 
medium stoutness to root best, probably because they possess both 
the requisite amount of suppleness for layering and sufficient vigour 
for " striking." The stoutest shoots are often very stiff and erect,"f 
and in shy rooting types such as II. (Doucin) and VIII. (French) 
they often fail to send out any adventitious roots the first year. The 
weak shoots are almost invariably rooted, but the rooting is naturally 
not so vigorous as on the medium growths. 
Varying seasonal conditions have afforded several indications that 
they influence in some degree certain of the types of root system. 
Types I., II., III., IV., VI., and VII., have given no results in this direc- 
tion, but the cases of Types V. and VIII. are worth recording. The first 
summer of the layering trials was 1914, and at East Mailing considerable 
dry periods were experienced during the growing season. In that 
* Experiments both with regard to the need for bending out the annual 
growths and for commencing the process of earthing early have been carried out. 
Generally, the results point to the expediency of starting the moulding up early 
(June) in order to obtain the best results. The weight of the mould itself 
upon the young supple growths is sufficient to ensure all the layering necessary. 
f This erectness, being characteristic of the Doucin (Type II.) throughout, 
may in part account for its shy rooting tendency in the early stages. It is the 
most difficult type to "lay," 
