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fruit crops and for some of our more important orna- 
mentals like the rose. It recognizes that the whole 
question of stocks is a broad and complex one and 
that much work will need to be done to secure light 
on, the many questions involved. We are beginning to 
appreciate more and more that our future successful 
fruit culture is intimately associated with the prob- 
lem of stocks. With the exception of the grape, no 
far-reaching studies have been made on stocks in this 
or any other country. We have followed certain em- 
pirical practices in the past, but as competition be- 
comes greater and the demand for the highest grades of 
fruits and plant products increases, we must know 
more of the actual relation of stocks to quality of 
product, to the length of life of the tree or plant, 
to adaptability to soil and climate, to resistance to 
disease and insect attacks. 
The question of stocks would seem to resolve it- 
self into two main groups of problems: (1) The prac- 
ticability of producing in this country the millions 
of ordinary apple, pear, plum, and cherry stocks which 
hitherto have been largely secured abroad. (2) The 
systematic study of stocks with a view to their im- 
provement and their better adaptability to the wide 
variety of conditions and needs that exist here and 
are likely to develop in the future as our great fruit 
industries become more complex. It is imperative that' 
if our fruit industries are to be maintained, there 
must be full supplies of the usual or ordinary stocks. 
The securing of special stocks is a long time process 
and will have to proceed slowly and carefully, build- 
ing up cantiously on the foundations we already have 
and must maintain. 
Pear growing is not one of our paramount fruit 
industries, yet it is safe to say with no other fruit 
is there a greater proportion of trees lost each year 
which must be replaced if normal production Is to be 
maintained. Fire blight is the chief cause of the 
lose of pear trees in this country, and while it is 
highly desirable to find stocks, or to develop stocks, 
that may in a measure prevent some of the losses to 
pear growers from fire blight, the pressing need is 
to maintain the supplies of French and Japanese seed- 
lings required to keep the number of trees up to nor- 
mal. If stocks are to be produced In this country to 
take the place of those hitherto secured abroad, It 
would seem proper that efforts should be made by the 
Government to aid those who are anxious to know where 
