Dwarf Trees are produced by planting seedlings in small pots of poor soil; by grafting on dwarf, slow-growing stock; or, in China, by cutting a ring of bark off some fruit-bearing branch, and covering the stripped part with scantily moistened clay.  When roots are struck, the branch is cut off and planted in poor soil.  Dwarf trees are favorite garden ornaments in China and Japan.  They are sometimes only six inches high, yet attain a great age.
       In dwarf fruit trees -- apple, peach, pear, plum, and cherry -- the budding process is used to secure an effective union of the stock and scion; otherwise the same methods are followed as in propagating other dwarf trees.  The best stocks for growing dwarf apple trees are the Paradise and the Doucin; for propagating dwarf pear trees, quince roots are used; for plum stocks, the most promising are the dwarf native Prunus pumila and Prunus besseyi; and for peaches, Prunus cerasifera. 1 

1     Colby, Frank Moore, M.A. (ed.-in-chief)  Nelson's Encyclopædia: Everybody's Book of Reference (New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons; 1907), Vol. IV, pg. 174.