"This hardiest of all cherries is very closely related to our garden cherries, so nearly indeed that our botanists long ago decided that valuable crosses on it might be made. "As yet its use for stocks is somewhat experimental, but we can say positively that it united well with our hardy sorts in budding, and it does not dwarf the sorts worked upon it to a greater extent during the first five years of growth than does the Mahaleb." [Illustration: _PRUNUS MAHALEB_] There are records of the Choke Cherry, _Prunus virginiana_,[52] and of the Rum, or wild Black Cherry, _Prunus serotina_, having been used as stocks but these long-bunch, or racemose, cherries are so distantly related to the short-bunch, or fascicled, orchard cherries that it would seem that their use would be desirable only under great stress. In Japan a horticultural variety of _Prunus pseudocerasus_ is used as a stock. Of this cherry for this purpose, Professor Yugo Hoshino of the Tohoku Imperial University at Sapporo, Japan, writes as follows: "You wish to know about the cherry stocks used in this country. It is very rare to use our common wild cherry as a stock for European cherries. In Hokkaido (Yozo Island), we commonly use the seedlings of European Sweet and Sour Cherries as stocks. But in the northern part of Japan proper (Main Island), it is a common practice to graft European cherries on a special kind of our cherry. This cherry has particular characters which fit it for propagation; namely, it roots very easily either from cuttings or by layering (mound). Its botanical position is not certain, but it is probable that it is a cultural variety of Pseudocerasus, especially bred for stock purposes. It is grown by nurserymen only and called Dai-Sakura. (_Dai_ means stock: _Sakura_ means cherry.) It has a somewhat dwarfing influence on cions and hastens their fruiting age." This stock ought to be tried in America if, indeed, it is not already under cultivation from introductions made by the United States Department of Agriculture. These are but a few of many cherries that have been or might be tried as stocks for orchard varieties. There are many species of cherries more closely related to the cultivated edible sorts than the Mahaleb. Many of the cherries from Asia, not now known to growers, will eventually find their way to America; a few have already been introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture; some of them can undoubtedly be used as stocks and from them we may hope to find a better stock than either the Mazzard or Mahaleb.