Stock (plant)

“ After two years careful trial, I have found this seed every way superior to the original imported stock, good as that was, for our hot climate. The plants are much more robust, make equally as compact but larger heads, and what is most remarkable, they mature here fully two weeks or more ahead of the imported seed. Nearly every plant will make a marketable head, and they always sell for fully double as much as cabbage. ”

“ Some gardeners leave a piece of the stock about six inches long for the first year, in order to tie the first summer's shoot to it to prevent its being broken off by the wind. This may be well when the plant is exposed to high winds, but even then, if you see danger, you may tie a short stick on the top part of the stock, and to this tie the young shoot, and then the sap all goes into the shoot from the bud, instead of being divided between it and six inches of stock left in the other way. There are some advantages which budding has over grafting, and these I think it right to mention. ”

“ Indeed, I have found mixtures in new varieties obtained directly from the originators. Therefore the need that the plant grower should give personal and unceasing vigilance to the stock from which he propagates, and that those who take a pride in improving their stock should often scan their beds narrowly. Moreover, if a bed stands several years in the same place, new seedlings may spring up, and thus create a mixture. ”

“ If allowed to remain longer, it will sometimes cut into the bark of the rapidly growing stock, but is productive of no other injury. It is the practice with many cultivators to cut off the top of the stock above the bud immediately after inoculation. A limited acquaintance with vegetable physiology would convince the cultivator of the injurious [Pg 124] results of this practice, and that the total excision of the branches of the stock while in full vegetation must be destructive to a large portion of the roots, and highly detrimental to the prosperity of the plant. ”

“ For market I prefer Ben Davis, Missouri Pippin, Winesap, Early Harvest, Benoni, and Maiden's Blush. When planting a family orchard select varieties from the earliest to the latest, that they may be well supplied. In planting a commercial orchard I would study the wants and demands of the people, also the varieties best adapted to our soil and climate. Do not be like an experiment station and plant all varieties catalogued. A mongrel orchard, like mongrel stock, is not good property. The man who has a hundred bushels of some one good variety of apples can always get the best price for them ”

“ It is cultivated much in Scotland for the timber, which is hard, and of use for furniture and other domestic purposes. It is the best and most lasting stock for grafting on. Persons who are about to plant this fruit would do well to inquire into the nature of the stock, as no fruit-tree is so liable to disease and become gummy as cherries are, and that is often much owing to the improved kinds being sown for stocks, which are of a more tender texture and of course less hardy than this. ”

“ An extensive grower of pot plants, from information carefully gathered among his fellow nurserymen, estimates that the plant trade of the vicinity of New York reaches nearly the sum of $200,000 annually, and this for plants mainly employed as "bedding plants," in the decoration of gardens and city yards, leaving entirely out of the question, those for winter culture at windows and in green houses, as well as the immense stock of the growers themselves to supply the demand for cut flowers. ”

“ When the cutting is inserted in a plant, it is no longer called a cutting but a scion; and the plant in which it is inserted is called the stock. Fruit trees are grafted in order that a certain variety or kind may be perpetuated, as a Baldwin or Ben Davis variety of apple, Seckel or Bartlett pear, Navel or St. Michael orange.
Plants have preferences as to the stocks on which they will grow; but we can find out what their choice is only by making the experiment. The pear grows well on the quince, but the quince does not thrive on the pear. ”

“ While stock will eat the plant when at hand they take but little of it if nutritious grasses can be found. A very intelligent and observant farmer, however, was seen cutting and burning the plants which covered his pastures to save his stock—his neighbor by carelessness in this respect, he averred, having lost some valuable horses. ”

“ Rogues appearing among the stocks of seed-growers, however, if allowed to remain, very materially affect the character of particular stocks by the dissemination of strange pollen and by the admixture of their seed. Great care is exercised by seed-growers, with reputations to maintain, to eliminate these from among their stock-plants before the flowering period is reached. ”

“ Cuttings are often employed, but the handling of stock plants is a difficult matter except in the hands of a professional, and when plants are wanted in quantity it is cheaper to buy them of the plantsman than to grow them from seed or attempt to keep over stock plants. ”

“ The stocks are commonly divided into two classes:— (1) free stocks, which consist of seedling plants, chiefly of the same genus or species as the trees from which the scions are taken; and (2) dwarfing stocks, which are of more diminutive growth, either varieties of the same species or species of the same or some allied genus as the scion, which have a tendency to lessen the expansion of the engrafted tree. The French Paradise is the best dwarfing stock for apples, and the quince for pears. ”

“ New types of stocks are needed badly. The ideal stock must be vigorous and hardy; fairly immune to leaf-blight and fire-blight; it must come from a species which seeds freely, and the seedlings from which are uniform; this ideal stock must be adapted to all pear-growing regions in the country; a large percentage of the seedlings must make first-class stocks ”

“ Any portion of such a compound existence, grafted upon another stock, or planted immediately in the ground itself and established upon its own roots, will produce a new tree like the first, being furnished with supplies of nourishment it may grow indefinitely while retaining all the qualities of the parent stock—if that be healthy and vigorous so will this—indeed new life and vigor often seem to be imparted by a congenial thrifty stock, and a fertile soil, so that there does not appear to be any reason why the variety should ever run out and disappear. ”

“ We have spoken of soul as the cause of the plant life in our bodies, but plants were not admitted by the Stoics to be possessed of soul in the strict sense. What animated them was 'nature' or, as we have called it above, 'growth'. Nature, in this sense of the principle of growth, was defined by the Stoics as 'a constructive fire, proceeding in a regular way to production,' or 'a fiery spirit endowed with artistic skill'. That Nature was an artist needed no proof, since it was her handiwork that human art essayed to copy. ”

“ In the same way the world-soul displayed itself in rational beings as intellect, in the lower animals as mere souls, in plants as nature or growth, and in inorganic substances as 'holding' or cohesion. To this lowest stage add change, and you have growth or plant nature; super-add to this phantasy and impulse and you rise to the soul of irrational animals; at a yet higher stage you reach the rational and discursive intellect, which is peculiar to man among mortal natures. ”

“ The universe was pervaded by intelligence as man's body is pervaded by his soul. But as the human soul though everywhere present in the body is not present everywhere in the same degree, so it was with the world-soul. The human soul presents itself not only as intellect, but also in the lower manifestations of sense, growth, and cohesion. It is the soul which is the cause of the plant life, which displays itself more particularly in the nails and hair; it is the soul also which causes cohesion among the parts of the solid substances such as bones and sinews, that make up our frame. ”

“ For one and the same power manifested itself in all ranks of nature, only at each stage on a higher level. To the vegetative powers of the plant the animal added sense and Impulse. It was in accordance therefore with the nature of an animal to obey the Impulses of sense, but to sense and Impulse man superadded reason so that when he became conscious of himself as a rational being, it was in accordance with his nature to let all his Impulses be shaped by this new and master hand. Virtue was therefore pre-eminently in accordance with nature. ”

“ The selection of suitable stocks is a matter still requiring much scientific experiment. The object of grafting is to expedite and increase the formation of flowers and fruit. Strong-growing pears, for instance, are grafted on the quince stock in order to restrict their tendency to form “gross” shoots and a superabundance of wood in place of flowers and fruit. Apples, for the same reason, are “worked” on the “paradise” or “doucin” stocks, which from their influence on the scion are known as dwarfing stocks. ”

“ Such stocks will increase yearly, so as at length to form dense tufts. They will often preserve through the winter a few leaves, amongst which are placed the buds which grow out into stems the following year, wliilst the under side of the stock emits new roots from or amongst the remains of the old ones. ”

“ Stout, well-rooted stock-plants are used from which to obtain these cuttings, and they are cut back when taken to the house in the fall in order to induce a good growth. Many hardy shrubs can be easily propagated in this way when the work is difficult in the open air, e. ”

“ The Stock has been made the emblem of lasting beauty; because, though it is less graceful than the rose, and less majestic than the lily, its splendour is more durable, and its fragrance of longer continuance. Few flowering plants have been so much and so rapidly improved by cultivation as the Stock. Within the last two centuries, its nature has been almost entirely changed by the florist; and it is now a shrub whose branches are covered with blossoms little inferior in dimensions to the rose. ”

“ On own-rooted stock, the suckers or shoots from below the surface of the soil will be of the same kind, whereas with budded roses there is danger of the stock (usually Manetti or dog rose) starting into growth and, not being discovered, outgrowing the bud, taking possession, and finally killing out the weaker growth. Still, if the plants are set deep enough to prevent adventitious buds of the stock from starting and the grower is alert, this difficulty is reduced to a minimum. ”

“ The pear-grower is becoming more and more concerned with the kind of stock upon which his trees are grafted. One or more of several objects is sought in working a pear on roots other than its own. The stock may be chosen, and most often is, with the single purpose in view of perpetuating a variety; it may be selected to dwarf or magnify the size of the cion; very often the stock is better adapted to the soil than the cion would be on its own roots; the quality of the fruit is sometimes improved by the stock; lastly, some stocks are much more resistant to fire-blight than others. ”

“ The best results from woodland planting are obtained with native-grown material. Such stock is stronger, hardier and better acclimated. Foreign-grown stock is usually a little cheaper, owing to the fact that it has been grown abroad, under cheap labor conditions. ”

“ Geraniums and other hanging plants tumble over the edge of the flat roof tops, looking as though they lived on air, as the boxes or tins they are grown in are out of sight. Here the humblest cottager grew carnations, fuchsias, begonias, and pelargoniums with loving care in every old tin box, or saucepan, that he could lay hands on. One reason that pot plants are scarce is the enormous cost of flower-pots, which are mostly imported, and often if I wished to buy a plant, the price was more than doubled if the precious pot was to be included in the bargain. ”

“ I came through Hawaii on my way here, and they're growing pineapples there on land that costs them a thousand dollars an acre; pineapples no better than ours in the bush of Malita. It costs them a dollar and a half a day for labour, and they're making money. Here we should pay nothing for the land, a shilling a day for labour—and a thousand for the canning plant," he ended a trifle hurriedly. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact, that two weak stocks joined, will collect double the quantity of honey, and consume much less than two of the same age and strength, kept separately. Stocks must be joined after sunset, upon the day that one of them has swarmed, or before sunrise the next morning, and the doubled stock must be placed upon the stand it previously occupied. Great care must be taken not to shake the hive, nor must it be turned up, the combs being new, and tender, will easily break, and the stock by that means be destroyed. ”

“ One-year-old stocks can be used, but two-year-olds are thought to be better. The stocks must be grown from northern seedlings. There is no place in the North for the southern stock, and right here let me suggest that the individual who buys northern trees grafted on southern stocks or southern trees grafted on northern stocks is throwing his money away. I set fifty trees last fall of the "Indiana" grafted on southern stocks, and the first freeze that came promptly killed them all. They put up a few new sprouts last summer, but finally the roots rotted, and this fall I dug them up. ”