26 
PROPAGATION - . 
vour, but many are also inferiour, when grafted on the Quince, 
while they are more gritty on the thorn. The Green Gage, a 
Plum of great delicacy of flavour, varies considerably upon dif- 
ferent stocks ; and Apples raised on the crab, and pears on the 
Mountain Ash, are said to keep longer than when grown on 
their own roots. 
In addition to the foregoing, a diseased stock should always 
be avoided, as it will communicate disease slowly to the graft, 
unless the latter is a variety of sufficient vigour to renew the 
health of the stock, which is but seldom the case. 
The cultivator will gather from these remarks that, in a fa- 
vourable climate and soil, if we desire the greatest growth, du- 
ration, and development in any fruit, (and this applies to or- 
chards generally,) we should choose a stock of a closely similar 
nature to the graft — an apple seedling for an apple; a pear 
seedling for a pear. If we desire dwarf trees, that coma into 
bearing very young, and take little space in a garden, we em- 
ploy for a stock an allied species of slower growth. If our soil 
or climate is unfavourable, we use a stock, which is adapted to 
the soil, or which will, by its hardier roots, endure the cold. 
The influence of the graft on the stock seems scarcely to ex- 
tend beyond the power of communicating disease. A graft taken 
from a tree enfeebled by disease, will recover with difficulty, 
even if grafted on healthy stocky for a dozen times in repeated 
succession. And when the disease is an inherent or hereditary 
one, it will certainly communicate it to the stock. We have 
seen the yellows, from a diseased peach tree, propagated through 
hundreds of individuals by budding, and the stock and graft 
both perish together from its effects. Hence the importance, to 
nurserymen especially, of securing healthy grafts, and working 
only upon healthy stocks. 
Propagation by cuttings. 
Propagating by cuttings, as applied to fruit trees, consists in 
causing a shoot of the previous season’s wood to grow, by detach- 
ing it from the parent tree at a suitable season, and planting it 
in the ground under favourable circumstances. 
In this case, instead of uniting itself by woody matter to another 
tree, as does the scion in grafting, the descending woody matter 
becomes roots at the lower end, and the cutting of which, is then a 
new and entire plant. Every bud being a distinct individual, capa- 
ble of forming a new plant, has indeed theoretically the power, if 
separated from the parent stem, of throwing out roots and main- 
taining a separate existence ; and some plants, as the grape vine, 
are frequently propagated by single buds planted in the soil. 
But in practice, it is found necessary, with almost all tree® and 
plants, to retain a considerable portion of the stem with the bud 
