apple are not readily intergrafted. The stone fruits, 
in which the bark runs around the limb instead of 
lengthwise of it, as with the apple and pear, are not 
so easily grafted. Of these the plum is the easiest 
to graft, then the cherry and the peach is the most 
difficult. 
DOES THE STOCK AFFECT THE SCION?_ 
There is only space here to introduce the topic 
upon which many pages have been written. There 
are still all grades of opinion on the subject, from 
that of the old Romans who held that black roses 
could be produced by grafting roses oil black cur¬ 
rants. to that of Baltet, the eminent French horti¬ 
culturist, who held that "grafting is a form of fed¬ 
erative union wherein the interested parties retain 
their autonomy. If you are interested in making a 
study of this subject you cannot do better than to 
read the 45 pages on the subject in the Michigan 
State Horticultural Society's report for 1S91, in 
which A. A. Crozler tabulates nearly 300 references 
on the inter-effect of stock and scion. From this 
and other evidence I believe there are some con¬ 
clusions that we may accept: 
1. The stock sometimes docs affect the scion. One 
would have to deny the dwarfing effect of the quince 
root upon the pear grafted upon it to deny all in¬ 
fluence of stock upon scion. 
2. This effect, only lasts as tong ns the union, i. c., 
it is not transmissible. Were this not true varieties 
would soon lose their identity, grafted as they are 
upon all sorts of stocks, and in the case of old varie¬ 
ties through scores of graft generations. 
3. In the vast majority of eases, especially in 
root-grafting, the effect, if there is one, is negligible. 
There is usually more difference between Baldwin 
apples from the same tree than from adjoining trees. 
Bud variations such as the Ilitchings Twenty Ounce 
and Banks Gravenstein come true when grafted on 
miscellaneous stocks. 
4. The effect is in degree and not in kind. No 
new factor is ever introduced by grafting. You can. 
not make roses black by grafting on black currants, 
nor peaches stoneless by grafting on the willow. 
5. The season may sometimes be slightly changed 
by the stock. The English walnut is said to he 
hardier on the native black, due to the fact that it 
has a slightly shorter growing season, avoiding 
Spring and Fall frosts. 
Any effect of stock upon scion must be through 
the sap, as that is all that passes through the point 
of union. In the illustrations on this page the line 
of demarkation is easily seen, each member of the 
union producing its own kind of cells. By the amount 
and composition of this crude sap which the stock 
furnishes the scion it can occasionally slightly affect 
the size, color and flavor of the fruit on the graft, 
but such effects are the rare exceptions rather than 
the rule. paul thayer. 
Practical Forestry in New York 
A LL of Schoharie County. N.' Y„ lying south of 
Cobleskill, and much northeast of there also, 
except the larger valley bottoms, conditions are 
identical, as Mr. De Graff described in a recent 
article. Population has decreased 60 per cent or 
more since 1850. Land values have ceased to exist, 
as farms will bring only a fraction of the value of 
the buildings if off the main roads, if, indeed, any¬ 
thing can be realized at all. Now with the nation 
facing a certain timber famine, with soaring prices 
of lumber, which will certainly follow, don't you 
think it advisable for the Farm Bureaus, agricul¬ 
tural colleges, State experiment stations and agri¬ 
cultural press to raise the slogan, “Set your waste 
land to trees?” The cost is small, and the prospec¬ 
tive returns, while necessarily deferred, will in the 
end he large and certain. With the average growth 
of 1,000 hoard feet per acre per year, which is a 
demonstrated fact on poor, thin soils, and a probable 
stumpage price on reasonably accessible tracts any¬ 
way of $100 per thousand B. M. long before probable 
maturity. I do not know of a more attractive future 
investment that will alike help care for the future 
of one’s family and benefit community and country. 
Just now, with agricultural conditions as they are, 
it every farmer in the United States devoted one 
acre to forestry, took the time in the Spring planting 
season to set the trees, not only would neither the 
trees nor the labor spent cost anything, but the rise. 
I believe, in food prices, because of the lessened 
production,*would convert all the other farm opera¬ 
tions from a losing to a good paying basis. 
I am not writing this from theory only: I am 
putting my belief in practice already as fast as rea¬ 
sonably possible in my own case. I have one of 
those hill farms, 0*4 miles southwest of here, at 
1.S20 to 2,100 ft. altitude. In April, 1921. I set out 
Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
on a stony side-hill pasture 2,000 pine trees approxi¬ 
mately 7x7 ft., or slightly over two acres. In order 
to be sure of the cost of the labor and the care re¬ 
quired, I set every tree myself, with one helper, in 
21 hours, and although the Spring was unusually 
Section of a graft showing demarkation between 
nood of stock and scion'. This scion had three buds, 
each of which produced a branch. One grew to the 
left, one to the right and one vertically.. 
hot and dry, both very unfavorable factors with 
conifers, still 90 per cent of them were alive, looked 
thrifty and went into the Winter in good condition. 
The remainder of that field, about four acres. I 
shall set to pines the coming Spring. 
On the adjoining farm the owner has been setting 
Section of graft showing how in new layers of wood 
the stock and scion coalesce. 
365 
continually for the past 10 years, set 25,000 white 
pines in April, 1921, alone, so you can readily see 
that this man has faith in the outcome of this ven¬ 
ture. lie has a large part of his woodland under- 
planted to Norway spruce, as this timber tree will 
endure shade and competition better than white 
pine. His early settings of evergreen trees can be 
seen for quite a distance, and seem to be growing 
rapidly. william m. klixg. 
A Use for Coal Ashes 
I would like to say a few words in defence of coal 
ashes, as I have read so many times in The R. N.-Y. 
that coal ashes are of no value on the farm as fertilizer. 
Here is a way to make them act as fertilizer: 
About 40 years ago my father had two rows of cur¬ 
rant bushes and a number of gooseberries. They were 
probably 12 or 15 years old, never trimmed, and all 
matted with wild grass. The grass grew taller than 
the currant bushes. They were growing in a soil that 
was made from ground washing down a hill, and the 
top soil from excavating several cellars, the subsoil 
being about 2 or 3 ft. below the surface. I pulled up 
these bushes, and with the ax I cut them into pieces, 
always chopping down through the bushes. Then I cut 
all the old wood out. I then had from 12 to 20 roots 
from an old bush; in some instances I did not have a 
twig on the root. I set these old roots on heavy clay 
soil, and in two years each root was as large as the 
original bushes. But the greatest problem was facing 
me now, and that was the worms that stripped the 
bushes before the currants and the gooseberries ripened. 
I knew they came up from the ground, and here is 
where I made the coal ashes do their work. I put two 
good-sized forkfuls of well-rotted barnyard manure around 
each bush, and then filled the bushes about G in. high 
with coal ashes. I used from six to eight big shovels 
to the hush, covering all the manure, and also covering 
the ground for a distance of 18 in. from the bushes. 
The result, no grass, no weeds and no worms, and the 
nicest and largest currants and gooseberries in the 
market. They were all prize winners. Try this on 
your grapevines and see the results. 'e f m 
Buffalo. N. Y. 
B UT you can hardly say that the coal ashes 
acted as a fertilizer in your case. They added 
little or no plant food, for about the only “fertility" 
they carry comes from the small amount of wood 
burned in the fires with the coal. We have often 
told how the fine coal ashes act to bind loose open 
soils together, and also to open up and loosen the 
heavy clays. Many people use the coal ashes as a 
mulch as you did around plants or trees. The action 
ol the mulch is not to add plant food as a fertilizer 
does, but it keeps do*vu weeds and holds the soil 
moist and cool, and also increases the work of cer¬ 
tain bacteria in the soil. It is good practice to use 
coal ashes in this way. Piles of broken plastering 
are also good for the purpose. 
The Law of the Country Road 
1. If A is hauling a load of hay drawn by horses, and 
meets B. driving a light rig or aut<>. does A (according 
to law i have to lay over on his side far enough t<> give 
one-half of the road to B. although A is in danger of 
upsetting his load, while B might get into the ditch 
even, and no harm done, allowing A the level road? 
2. Under the same circumstances, if B drives up behind 
A, must A lay over and allow B to pass on half of the 
tme-track road? 3. In case of deep snow, how does this 
apply? 4. If the road is bad, owiug to mud or snow, 
and A drives on the side of the road outside of the 
ditch, although inside of the 50-ft. road limit, can B 
stop him if B's land borders the road there? Can B 
throw rails alongside of the road to prevent this prac¬ 
tice? 5. If A breaks down his rig in the middle of 
the road, and B meets A, B must go around A. and iu 
doing so R upsets his load, is A responsible for B’s 
damage by occupying ail of the road? 0. A has to 
drive his cows along the road about .80 rods to a pas¬ 
ture that he owns on the opposite side of the toad, and 
iu meeting It the cows scatter and B's auto hurts a cow. 
Is B responsible, although B is on his side of the road, 
and the cow is on the wrong half of the road wheu hurt, 
yet A does his best to keep the cows all on the right 
side of the road? w. e. b. 
Pennsylvania. 
A S a matter of law. A is obliged to give B one- 
half the road, if it is possible for him to do so. 
A may drive anywhere within the bounds of the 
highway, and no one has a right to obstruct his pas¬ 
sage. A is not responsible for B’s damages under 
question 5. Under question G B is only responsible 
in the case of negligence vh his part. 
It hardly seems possib. considering the advanced 
state of civilization in which we live, that any of 
the above questions can arise. Each question in¬ 
volves a matter of courtesy and decency, and. re¬ 
gardless of any law. the fictitious persons. A and B. 
ought to settle the above questions satisfactorily on 
the basis of fair dealing one to another. n. t. 
