^AfTRv- HO#' 
Vol. XXXIX. No. 16 .1 
Whole No. 1577, f 
NEW YORK, APRIL 17, 1880. 
j Price Fite Cents. 
/ $2.00 Per Tear. 
[Entered according- to Act of Congress, In the year 1880, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
lomologital. 
THE FRENCH PARADISE APPLE AS A 
STOCK. 
The references which we have of late made 
to the French Paradise as a stock for dwarfing 
Applets, have brought us so many inquiries that 
we are assured the following remarks and 
correspondence, together with the accompany¬ 
ing illustrations, will prove of general interest. 
This stock is to the Apple nearly wbat the 
Quince stock is to the Pear, except that more 
varieties of Apples do well upon it than of 
Pears upon the Quince. The English Paradise, 
or Doucin, is used as a dwarfing stock ; but 
the trees, while they grow larger, do not fruit 
as soon as those worked upon the French 
Paradise. 
Professor Koch, of Berlin, has said respect¬ 
ing this tree that the name Malus paradisiaca 
appears to have been first used by Ruellius in 
the year 1537; that it is a native of south-east¬ 
ern Russia, ihe Caucasus, Tartary and the 
Altai Mountains. He had often seen it in the 
Caucasus and near the Don and the Volga, 
where it forms bushes and dwarf trees, fre¬ 
quently accompanied with suckers. Mr. Rob¬ 
inson says that the Paradise stock has been 
known in France for between 200 and 300 
years and that, when lairly tried, it proves to 
be of all stocks yet kuown the hardiest, most 
dwarfing aud most powerful in inducing early 
fertility. This stock, he says, if planted in 
the coldest and wettest of soils, instead of 
sending long roots down into the sour, clayey 
earth, like the Crab and, in a lesser degree, 
the Doucin, keeps its wig-like mass of small 
roots near the surface, and, without root- 
pruning, will bear fruit long before the others. 
As to early bearing, we may say that of our 
five varieties on Paradise, all bore the second 
year and have borne every year since; but, 
except the Lady (Pomme d’ Api), none has 
borne more than three or four apples. The 
Lady, not over four feet high, bore last year 
about a dozen. 
Mr. Robinson in his “ Parks aud Gardens of 
Paris,” presents a letter from Mr. J. J. Thomas, 
to whom he wrote for information as to the 
value of Paradise stock in "the colder parts 
of North America.” Mr. Thomas replies as 
follows: “ The French Paradise stock grows 
well with us on strong soils, with suitable 
pruning aud cultivation. Neglected and on 
light soils it frequently fails after a lapse of 
several years. The oldest trees with which I 
am acquainted in Western New York are on 
the grounds of Ellwanjer A Barry. Trees 
which have been worked on it, thirty years 
old, still possess a fair degree of vigor, having 
stems six inches to eight inches in diameter, 
and the trees are about eight feet high, with 
about the same extent of branches. Twelve- 
year-old trees are five or six feet high and four 
or five inches in diameter.” 
Dwarf Apple Trees—French Paradise Stocks. 
PRES. T. T. LYON. 
The problem, how to provide the possessors 
of limited grounds with au assortment of 
home-grown apples, adequate to their wants, 
and, at the same time, to avoid the necessity 
of introducing into such limited grounds trees 
whose natural growth will be sure soon to 
occasion a disproportion between them and 
the plat they occupy, as well as the desire of 
the nurseryman and pomologiat to rapidly 
test the varieties with which they may have 
to do, and that without the necessity of de¬ 
voting a large space to the purpose, have in¬ 
duced a resort, with the apple, to the process 
now so commonly applied to all our leading 
fruits—that of dwarfing, and at the same 
time hastening fructification by budding or 
grafting the varieties upon dissimilar stocks. 
For the reason—as I imagine—that most 
buyers are in the habit of requiring large¬ 
sized trees, even when dwarfs are called for, 
it is the custom of nurserymen in general to 
nse what is known as the Doucin stock, for 
dwarfiug Apples, since the young trees so 
treated soouer reach the requisite size. On 
this stock, however, the vigor of the growth 
and the ultimate size of the tree are but slight¬ 
ly diminished; nor is the period of fructifica- | 
tion very considerably hastened ; while, as an 
inevitable consequence, the distance apart at 
which they should be planted, is only propor¬ 
tionately diminished. 
For the owners of village or city gardens, 
who of necessity can devote to fruit only a 
few rods of ground, in which a full-sized tree, 
or even an over-grown shrub, would appear 
out of kceptng with the surroundings; and 
also for the trial grounds of the rurseryman 
and Pomologist, in which quantity of fruit 
is of lesB consequence than early fructification, 
and in which also close planting insures a 
considerable diminution of the expense of 
cultivation, a little thought or experience 
suffices to allay the anxiety for large trees. 
To supply the want of this large and increas¬ 
ing class of planters, resort is had to a yet 
more dwarfish variety of the Apple—the 
French Paradise Apple—which usually at¬ 
tains a size very little larger than that of a 
well-grown currant or gooseberry bush, and 
which, for that reason, may be planted from 
five to six feet apart each way, aud yet leave 
sufficient space to accommodate the ultimate 
growth of the tree. 
The French Paradise stock seems to be at 
home in almost any soil adapted to fruit grow¬ 
ing ; although, in light or poor soils, it will, 
doubtless, sooner and more constantly de¬ 
mand the employment of fertilizers. Like 
all dwarfs, its roots extend but a limited dis¬ 
tance, and hence, in any soil, they will the 
sooner exhaust the fertility within their reach, 
for this reason requiring constant, careful 
and through cultivation. 
Unlike the Pear dwarfed upon Quince stocks, 
all varieties of the Apple seem to be alike 
sucesaful on the Paradise stock; the chief 
ground of preference being, that from natural 
habit of growth, soum varieties are more easily 
kept in the desired form than others. 
As a matter of convenience, Apples are 
generally worked upon this stock by budding 
during the growing season ; although they 
may. when desirable, be. grafted without diffi¬ 
culty. The buds are forced into growth the 
following spring by cutting back the stock to 
just above the insertion of the bud ; and the 
shoots, after one year’s growth, are, the fol¬ 
lowing spring, again cut back to the proper 
hight for the commencement of the top, which 
should in no case exceed one or one and a 
half foot. 
Dwarfs on Paradise stocks, when planted 
out, should always be set with the point of 
union at, or very slightly below the surface, 
for the reason that, if planted higher than 
this, they are less sure to hold their position 
firmly; while they are likely to show an un¬ 
sightly enlargement at their point of union, 
with an increased tendency to sprout from 
the stock above the ground. On the other 
hand, if planted so low as ultimately to cause 
roots to push from above the bud. the influ¬ 
ence of the dwarf stock is overcome, and the 
tree assumes tho habit and vigor of a standard. 
A well managed dwarf apple tree on this stock, 
will generally Bhow frnit the third year from 
the bud, aud if well cared for at suitable times, 
may be kept in proper shape with very little, 
if any, use of the knife. Ot course, to do 
this, reference must be had to the normal hab¬ 
it of the variety. When the trees are per¬ 
mitted to assume their natural form, with¬ 
out an attempt to put them into a "strait- 
jacket" and mold them to a single model, the 
occasional lopping off or thinning out. of a 
superfluous shoot, and the " pinching in" of 
the excessively vigorous or misplaced ones, 
will in the main, suffice for this purpose, al¬ 
though, now and then, an open or straggling 
grower may require to have its shoots cut back 
in spring, to bring it into more compact con¬ 
dition; while the most upright or compact 
growers may need to be spread, either by 
thinning, or by atakiug and tying down the 
shoots, to open them sufficiently to the light. 
It is believed that the dwarfing influence 
of this stock, while It diminishes the capacity 
of the tree for the production of fruit, tends 
rather to increase its size and highten its color. 
How far this last may be true, I wi!^ not at¬ 
tempt to decide; but I feel quite safe in say¬ 
ing that, with the Increased ability to produce 
the requisite variety of sorts upon a limited 
space, and within a comparatively short period, 
the use of the French Paradise stock offers to 
tradesmen, professional men, and city and 
village residents generally, the best possi¬ 
ble means of securing an abundance, as well 
as a variety of fresh, seasonable fruit, Buch as 
no public market can be expected to supply. 
South Haven, Mich. 
A Note from Dr. John A. Warder. 
Mr personal experience with the French 
Paradise stock has not been nearly so exten¬ 
sive as my observations of Its behavior in the 
grounds of others, both in this country and in 
Europe. Many years ago, when desirous of 
testing a great many varieties of Apples as 
quickly as possible, a large order for dwarfs 
was filled by one of the greatest nursery firms 
of our eountry. These were planted, and as 
the majority of the trees were worked on the 
Doucin stock, th«y grew famously in our strong 
soil, and were not fruited much, if any, sooner 
than if they had been on the common apple 
roots, and they made as large trees. Those 
worked on the true Paradise were dwarfed as 
desired, without any trouble of summer pinch¬ 
ing, though that should always be practiced 
with espaliers, qaenouilles, cordons or bashes 
in the perfect fruit garden or orchard-house. 
Except for such reliued gardening, or where 
the planter has a very limited space on which 
he wants to test a great many kinds, the Para¬ 
dise is not a desirable stock, certainly not for 
general orchard planting. The Paradise tree 
or bush is too decidedly a dwarf, aud is natu¬ 
rally lacking in the vigor aud thriftiness which 
are sought for by the average American or- 
chardist aud fruit grower. 
A Note From Ellwanger & Barry. 
In reply to your inquiries, we beg to say 
that the Apples on French Paradise stocks 
bear freely with us. They commence bearing 
at two to four years from bud, aud bear every 
year, unless permitted to bear too much— 
which they are apt to do. We regard them as 
invaluable to nurserymen who desire to test 
varieties quickly; also to amateurs who de¬ 
sire a few choice Apples in their garden 
where standard trees cannot be grown; also to 
