854 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 8. 
portant, as to real position, to do much mischief. I 
have before offered suggestions this way; I may now 
be permitted to repeat, and to add to them. 
As to the origination of New Stocks, it may be fairly 
asked, are any of our present stocks defective to meet 
the end in view ? This is a very natural beginning, 
and we will try to answer it. 
All the world knows, in the first place, that Apricots, 
especially the most valuable kinds, as Moorpark, are 
apt to decay piecemeal, even when the tree is in its 
prime and apparently healthy in its general system. 
Now this, surely, must either be through some inapti¬ 
tude in the stock, or through some physical defect 
inherent in the kind, or what they term nearing out. If 
the former, here is a case for the Stock-grower; if the 
latter, it points to the propriety of raising new kinds 
from seed. And what stocks do our nurserymen use for 
them ? I really am hot well assured what Stocks the 
nurserymen do use at the present moment, but in 
former years they bad what was termed the Commoner 
Stock, and they used also the Muscle Plum Stock. This 
“commoner” appeared to be a sort of half-bred Plum, 
and used to branch out much into axillary shoots; per¬ 
haps it is of the Bullace section, although I never heard 
of its fruiting. Some of our friends, probably, will have 
the kindness to throw light -on this affair. The Muscle 
Stock, on the contrary, is a real Plum, growing with the 
uprightness and freedom of a fine young Orleans, and 
little disposed to axillary shoots or thorns. One thing 
is certain, that precisely similar results could not be 
expected from these two on all soils, nor from any two, 
differing so much in habit. 
To turn to Plums, which are, or used to be, worked 
on the Brussels Stocks, to which, in many cases, there 
appears no objection, yet since very slender-habited 
Plums, or kinds inclined to “ wear out,” require free- 
growing, if not luxuriant, stocks, there are others, such 
as the Egg-Plum section, many of the American kinds, 
and some of the Orlean class, which grow too rampant 
on over-powerful stocks for a training system, that would 
be much more manageable, as well as come sooner into 
bearing, if their grossness was subdued by the use of 
a move moderate stock. I have seen such as the 
Washington produce rods five feet long, in one season, 
against a wall. The Brussels Stock, if I remember 
rightly, is some twenty per cent, more robust than 
the M usclfi Stock. Why not put the weak kinds on the 
Brussels, and the robust on the Muscle, or, perhaps, 
the Wild Sloe? 
In Pears, too, if raised from seed for stocks, what a 
variety of habits are discernible, pointing, of course, to 
various adaptabilities- In raising these “ free ” stocks, 
as they are termed, I think much improvement would 
be effected if sorted in the act of transplanting, keeping 
all those with very fibrous surface-roots for a dwarfing 
system, or for training artistically, and reserving the 
more tap-rooted kinds for ordinary standards, &c. I do 
think that there can be no doubt fruitful habits may 
be determined by the roots alone, when in a state of 
Nature ; a little close examination will show that there 
is, even as in the branches, more difference than might 
be expected. I am thoroughly assured that fibrous roots 
in almost any fruit-tree point to early bearing, and to 
a moderated growth, and vice versa. 
People may talk philosophically about multiplying 
the small fibres,.in order to increase the vigour of the 
treo, but this is rather specious reasoning, and scarcely 
borne out in practice. The fact would appear to be— 
that every time a tree is root-pruned the impetus for 
rambling rapidly in quest of food is lessened; hence, 
a more steady growth, and, consequently, better equal¬ 
ization of the strength of a tree. I say nothing here 
about the warmer medium that surface-roots enjoy, as I 
wish to keep close to the subject in hand. It is very 
probable that Pears of very healthy and prolific kinds 
would make good stocks for a dwarfing system, or seed¬ 
lings from such as the Beurre de Capiaumont, Louis 
bonne de Jersey, &c.; it is not unlikely that some such 
practice would supersede the Quince Stock in a very 
great degree. I may here ask forgiveness of those 
Nurserymen who have invested much in the culture of 
the Quince ; they naturally back their “ stock in trade;” J 
but we all possess, more or less, an infirmity of the 
kind, that of backing our own opinion and our own ; 
interests. 
Some of our Peaches do not like our stocks; these 
are, I think, generally, on the Muscle Plum Stock, j 
Now, why not try seed from the American orchard, ! 
selected from very robust and healthy kinds, and 
especially those adapted to cooler soils and situations 
there. The result, 1 should expect, would be a stock 
more congenial to the Peach; in fact, more of its own 
nature ; for I am not aware that it is established as a 
fact, that the more dissimilar the stock, the higher the 
chances of successful culture. 
Of course, Nectarines may be expected to submit to 
the same stock as Peaches; therefore, little need be said 
about them. I may just observe, however, that I have 
frequently, in my day, budded both Peach and Nectarine 
from young luxuriant trees, on the old wood of Peach 
trees; wood as thick as my wrist; and that I have 
nearly always found that the Nectarine succeeds best. 
It does not grow quite so fast, but it endures better by 
far; this is strange enough, and I confess myself unable 
to account for it. The thing is done to fill up gaps, for 
I bate a blank in a Peach wall; it generally bears witness 
to bad management, or neglect, at some period. I have 
a fine wall now, eighty yards long, nearly all Peaches 
and Nectarines, and uniformly covered with fruit from 
the ground upwards; and I challenge any man to find 
three naked bricks in any one portion where the trees 
extend. 
As to Apples, I have little doubt that the striking 
them by cuttings would be one of the best plans for a 
dwarfing system ; but this must not be done anyway : 
they woidd require generous treatment, for the check is 
so great, and the root produced not being of so hardy a 
character as the wilding from seed, that they must, 
doubtless, have a tolerable amount of care exercised 
over them, and would, perhaps, require more generous 
soil. I cannot say that I am perfectly satisfied with the 
Paradise Stock; it certainly answers admirably for some, 
but, like the Quince for the Pear, the odds, in the 
aggregate, are against it. But, behold a bed of seedling 
stocks raised from ordinary orchard Apples, what a 
difference in habit presents itself! Aye, and in vigour 
of constitution. Now, the nurseryman, of course, can 
not be expected to select, sort, and systematise these 
according to the needs of the fastidious cultivator; if 
he did, he must charge double the value, on account of 
the extra labour involved, to say nothing of the head 
work required; he, of course, plants them out straight 
ahead. 
Before concluding this Stock affair, which is merely 
suggestive, let mo repeat the opinion, as an opinion, 
that I have before expressed in The Cottage Gardener 
more than once, and which is, I have little doubt, that 
if the young seedling stocks could be transplanted every 
year carefully for the first three years of their life, we 
should need neither Paradise Stock nor any thing else. 
We should have stocks which, when removed after 
grafting, would be a mass of fibres, instead of about 
three forks, like a three-legged stool; and, admitting j 
such to be the case, I will ask our really practical men, 
what they think would be the result? 
I hope enough has now been said to rouse attention 
to the Stock question, and to infuse fresh blood into it; 
of course, I cannot expect our readers who indeed 
