CHAPTER XVII. 698

FRUIT LISTS.

INTRODUCTION.

IMPORTANCE OF ORCHARD PRODUCTS. GOVERNMENT STATISTICS. GREAT

VALUE OF ORCHARD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS. DELIGHTS OF FRUIT

CULTURE. TEMPERATE REGIONS THE PROPER FIELD FOR FRUIT CULTURE,

AS FOR MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. PLANTS OF CULTURE, PLANTS OF NATURE.

NOMADIC CONDITION UNFAVORABLE FOR TERRA-CULTURE. NECESSITIES OF

AN INCREASING POPULATION A SPUR. HIGH CIVILIZATION DEMANDS HIGH

CULTURE. HORTICULTURE A FINE ART, THE POETRY OF THE FARMER'S

LIFE. MORAL INFLUENCES OF FRUIT-CULTURE. SINGULAR LEGISLATION

RESPECTING PROPERTY IN FRUIT. INFLUENCE UPON HEALTH. APPLES IN

BREAD-MAKING; AS FOOD FOR STOCK. SOURCES AND ROUTES OF

INTRODUCTION. AGENCY OF NURSERYMEN. INDIAN ORCHARDS. FRENCH

SETTLERS. JOHNNY APPLE-SEED. VARIETIES OF FRUITS, LIKE MAN,

FOLLOW PARALLELS OF LATITUDE. LOCAL VARIETIES OF MERIT TO BE

CHERISHED. OHIO PURCHASE. SILAS WHARTON. THE PUTNAM LIST.

Few persons have any idea of the great value and importance of the

products of our orchards and fruit-gardens. These are generally

considered the small things of agriculture, and are overlooked by all

but the statist, whose business it is to deal with these minutiæ, to

hunt them up, to collocate them, and when he combines these various

details and produces the sum total, we are all astonished at the

result.

Our government wisely provides for the gathering of statistics at

intervals of ten years, and some of the States also take an account of

stock and production at intermediate periods, some of them, like Ohio,

have a permanent statistician who reports annually to the Governor of

the State.

Our Boards of Trade publish the amounts of the leading articles that

arrive at and depart from the principal cities, and thus they furnish

us much additional information of value. Besides this, the county

assessors are sometimes directed to collect statistics upon certain

points of interest, and now that we all contribute toward the

extinction of the national debt, the United States Assessors in the

several districts are put in possession of data, which should be very

correct, in regard to certain productions that are specified by act of

Congress as liable to taxation. By these several means we may have an

opportunity of learning from time to time what are the productions of

the country, and their aggregate amounts are surprising to most of us.

When they relate to our special interests, they are often very

encouraging. This is particularly the case with those persons who have

yielded to the popular prejudice that cotton was the main agricultural

production of the United States; to such it will be satisfactory to

learn that the crop of corn, as reported in the last census, is of

nearly equal value, at the usual market prices of each article.

Fruit-growers will be encouraged to find that the value of orchard

products, according to the same returns, was nearly twenty millions,

that of Ohio being nearly one million; of New York, nearly three and

three-quarters millions; that the wine crop of the United States, an

interest that is still in its infancy, amounted to nearly three and

one-quarter millions; and that the valuation of market garden products

sums up to more than sixteen millions of dollars' worth. It is to be

regretted that for our present purpose, the data are not sufficiently

distinct to enable us to ascertain the relative value of the

productions of our orchards of apples, pears, peaches, quinces, and

the amount and value of the small fruits, as they are termed, since

these are variously grouped in the returns of the census takers, and

cannot now be separated. Of their great value, however, we may draw

our conclusions from separate records that have been kept and reported

by individuals, who assert the products of vineyards in some cases to

have been as high as three thousand dollars per acre; of strawberries,

at one thousand dollars; of pears, at one hundred dollars per tree,

which would be four thousand dollars per acre; of apples, at

twenty-five bushels per tree, or one thousand bushels per acre, which,

at fifty cents per bushel, would produce five hundred dollars.

But, leaving this matter of dollars and cents, who will portray for us

the delights incident to fruit-culture? They are of a quiet nature,

though solid and enduring. They carry us back to the early days of the

history of our race, when "the Lord God planted a garden eastward in

Eden ... and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree

that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food ... and the Lord God

took the man and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to

keep it." We are left to infer that this dressing and keeping of the

garden was but a light and pleasant occupation, unattended with toil

and trouble, and that in their natural condition the trees and

plants, unaided by culture, yielded food for man. Those were

paradisean times, the days of early innocence, when man, created in

the image of his Maker, was still obedient to the divine commands;

but, after the great transgression, everything was altered, the very

ground was cursed, "thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee,

and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face

shalt thou eat bread."----From that day to the present hour it has

been the lot of man to struggle with difficulties in the cultivation

of the soil, and he has been driven to the necessity of constant

watchfulness and care to preserve and to improve the various fruits of

the earth upon which he subsists. In the tropics, it is true, there

are many vegetable productions which are adapted for human food, even

in a state of nature, and there we find less necessity for the effort

of ingenuity and the application of thought and labor to produce a

subsistence. Amid these productive _plants of nature_, the natives of

such regions lead an idle life, and seldom rise above a low scale of

advancement; but in the temperate regions of the globe, where the

unceasing effort of the inhabitants is required to procure their daily

food, we find the greatest development of human energies and

ingenuity--there man thinks, and works; there, indeed, he is forced to

improve the natural productions of the earth--and there we shall find

him progressing. As with everything else, so it is with fruits, some

of which were naturally indifferent or even inedible, until subjected

to the meliorating influences of high culture, of selection, and of

improvement. Here we find our _plants of culture_, which so well repay

the labor and skill bestowed upon them.

In the early periods of the history of our race, while men were

nomadic and wandered from place to place, little attention was paid to

any department of agricultural improvement, and still less care was

bestowed upon horticulture. Indeed, it can scarcely be supposed that,

under such conditions, either branch of the art could have existed,

any more than they are now found among the wandering hordes of Tartars

on the steppes of Asia. So soon, however, as men began to take

possession of the soil by a more permanent tenure, agriculture and

horticulture also, attracted their chief attention, and were soon

developed into arts of life. With advancing civilization, this has

been successively more and more the case; the producing art being

obliged to keep pace with the increased number of consumers, greater

ingenuity was required and was applied to the production of food for

the teeming millions of human beings that covered the earth, and, as

we find, in China, at the present time, the greatest pains were taken

to make the earth yield her increase.

High civilization demands high culture of the soil, and agriculture

becomes an honored pursuit, with every department of art and science

coming to its assistance. At the same time, and impelled by the same

necessities, supported and aided by the same co-adjutors, horticulture

also advances in a similar ratio, and, from its very nature, assumes

the rank of a fine art, being less essential than pure agriculture,

and in some of its branches being rather an ornamental than simply a

useful art. It is not admitted, however, that any department of

horticulture is to be considered useless, and many of its applications

are eminently practical, and result in the production of vast

quantities of human food of the most valuable kind. This pursuit

always marks the advancement of a community.--As our western pioneers

progress in their improvements from the primitive log cabins to the

more elegant and substantial dwelling houses, we ever find the garden

and the orchard, the vine-arbor and the berry-patch taking their

places beside the other evidences of progress. These constitute to

them the poetry of common life, of the farmer's life.

The culture of fruits, and gardens also, contributes in no small

degree to the improvement of a people by the excellent moral influence

it exercises upon them. Everything that makes home attractive must

contribute to this desirable end. Beyond the sacred confines of the

happy hearthstone, with its dear familiar circle, there can be no more

pleasant associations than those of the garden, where, in our tender

years, we have aided loved parents, from them taking the first lessons

in plant-culture, gathering the luscious fruits of their planting or

of our own; nor of the rustic arbor, in whose refreshing shade we have

reclined to rest and meditate amid its sheltering canopy of verdure,

and where we have gathered the purple berries of the noble vine at a

later period of the rolling year; nor of the orchard, with its

bounteous supplies of golden and ruddy apples, blushing peaches, and

melting pears. With such attractions about our homes, with such ties

to be sundered, it is wonderful, and scarcely credible, that youth

should ever be induced to wander from them, and to stray into paths of

evil. Such happy influences must have a good moral effect upon the

young. If it be argued that such luxuries will tend to degrade our

morals by making us effeminate and sybaritic, or that such enjoyments

may become causes of envy and consequent crime on the part of those

who are less highly favored, it may be safely asserted that there is

no better cure for fruit-stealing, than to give presents of fruit, and

especially of fruit-trees, to your neighbors, particularly to the

boys--encourage each to plant and to cherish his own tree, and he will

soon learn the meaning of _meum_ and _tuum_, and will appreciate the

beauties of the moral code, which he will be all the more likely to

respect in every other particular.

Some of the legislation of our country is a very curious relic of

barbarism. According to common law, that which is attached to the

soil, may be removed without a breach of propriety, by one who is not

an owner of the fee simple; thus, such removal of a vegetable product

does not constitute theft or larceny, but simply amounts to a

trespass: whereas the taking of fruit from the ground beneath the

tree, even though it be defective or decaying, is considered a theft.

An unwelcome intruder, or an unbidden guest, may enter our orchard,

garden, or vineyard, and help himself at his pleasure to any of our

fruits, which we have been most carefully watching and nursing tor

months upon trees, for the fruitage of which we may have been laboring

and waiting for years, and, forsooth, our only recourse is to sue him

at the law, and our only satisfaction, after all the attendant

annoyance and expense, is a paltry fine for _trespass_ upon our

freehold, which, of course, is not commensurate with our estimate of

the value of the articles taken: fruits often possess, in the eyes of

the devoted orchardist, a real value much beyond their market price.

Were I asked to describe the location of the fabled fountain of

Hygeia, I should decide that it was certainly situated in an orchard;

it must have come bubbling from earth that sustained the roots of tree

and vine; it must have been shaded by the umbrageous branches of the

wide-spreading apple and pear, and it was doubtless approached by

alleys that were lined by peach trees laden with their downy fruit,

and over-arched by vines bearing rich clusters of the luscious grape,

and they were garnished at their sides by the crimson strawberry. Such

at least would have been an appropriate setting for so valued a jewel

as the fountain of health, and it is certain that the pursuit of

fruit-growing is itself conducive to the possession of that priceless

blessing. The physical as well as the moral qualities of our nature

are wonderfully promoted by these cares. The vigorous exercise they

afford us in the open air, the pleasant excitement, the expectation of

the results of the first fruits of our plants, tending, training and

cultivating them the while, are all so many elements conducive to the

highest enjoyment of full health.

The very character of the food furnished by our orchards should be

taken into the account, in making up our estimate of their

contributions to the health of a community. From them we procure

aliment of the most refined character, and it has been urged that the

elements of which they are composed are perfected or refined to the

highest degree of organization that is possible to occur in vegetable

tissues. Such pabulum is not only gratefully refreshing, but it is

satisfying--without being gross, it is nutritious. The antiscorbutic

effects of ripe fruits, especially those that are acid, are

proverbial, and every fever patient has appreciated the relief derived

from those that are acidulous. Then as a preventive of the febrile

affections peculiar to a miasmatic region, the free use of acid

fruits, or even of good sound vinegar made from grapes or apples, is

an established fact in medical practice--of which, by the by,

prevention is always the better part.

Apples were esteemed an important and valuable article of food in the

days of the Romans, for all school boys have read in the ore rotundo

of his own flowing measures, what Virgil has said, so much better than

his tame translator:

"New cheese and chestnuts are our country fare,

With mellow apples for your welcome cheer."

But in more modern times, beside their wonted use as dessert fruit, or

evening feast, or cooked in various modes, a French economist "has

invented and practiced with great success a method of making bread

with common apples, which is said to be very far superior to

potato-bread. After having boiled one-third part of peeled apples, he

bruised them while quite warm into two-thirds parts of flour,

including the proper quantity of yeast, and kneaded the whole without

water, the juice of the fruit being quite sufficient; he put the mass

into a vessel in which he allowed it to rise for about twelve hours.

By this process he obtained a very excellent bread, full of eyes, and

extremely light and palatable."[1]

Nor is this class of food desirable for man alone. Fruits of all

kinds, but particularly what may be called the large fruits, such as

are grown in our orchards, may be profitably cultivated for feeding

our domestic animals. Sweet apples have been especially recommended

for fattening swine, and when fed to cows they increase the flow of

milk, or produce fat according to the condition of these animals.

Think of the luxury of eating apple-fed pork! Why, even the strict

Rabbi might overcome his prejudices against such swine flesh! And then

dream of enjoying the luxury of fresh rich milk, yellow cream, and

golden butter, from your winter dairy, instead of the sky-blue fluid,

and the pallid, or an anotto-tinted, but insipid butter, resulting

from the meager supplies of nutriment contained in dry hay and

fibrous, woody cornstalks. Now this is not unreasonable nor

ridiculous. Orchards have been planted with a succession of sweet

apples that will sustain swine in a state of most perfect health,

growing and fattening simultaneously from June to November; and the

later varieties may be cheaply preserved for feeding stock of all

kinds during the winter, when they will be best prepared by steaming,

and may be fed with the greatest advantage. Our farmers do not

appreciate the benefits of having green food for their animals during

the winter season. Being blessed with that royal grain, the Indian

corn, they do not realize the importance of the provision of roots

which is so great a feature in British husbandry; but they have yet to

learn, and they will learn, that for us, and under our conditions of

labor and climate, they can do still better, and produce still greater

results with a combination of _hay_ or _straw_, _corn meal_ and

_apples_, all properly prepared by means of steam or hot water.

Besides, such orchards may be advantageously planted in many places

where the soil is not adapted to the production of grain.--The reader

is referred to the chapter on select lists in another part of this

volume, in which an attempt will be made to present the reader with

the opinions of the best pomologists of various parts of the country.

It were an interesting and not unprofitable study to trace the various

sources and routes by which fruits have been introduced into different

parts of our extended country. In some cases we should find that we

were indebted for these luxuries to the efforts of very humble

individuals, while in other regions the high character of the orchards

is owing to the forethought, knowledge, enterprise, and liberality of

some prominent citizen of the infant community, who has freely spent

his means and bestowed his cares in providing for others as well as

for his own necessities or pleasures. But it is to the intelligent

nurserymen of our country that we are especially indebted for the

universal diffusion of fruits, and for the selection of the best

varieties in each different section. While acting separately, these

men were laboring under great disadvantages, and frequently cultivated

certain varieties under a diversity of names, as they had received

them from various sources. This was a difficulty incident to their

isolation, but the organization of Pomological Societies in various

parts of the country, has enabled them in a great measure to unravel

the confusion of an extended synonymy, and also by comparison and

consultation with the most intelligent fruit-growers, they have been

prepared to advise the planter as to the best and most profitable

varieties to be set out in different soils and situations.

Most of our first orchards were planted with imported trees. The

colonists brought plants and seeds. Even now, in many parts of the

country, we hear many good fruits designated as English, to indicate

that they are considered superior to the native; and we are still

importing choice varieties from Europe and other quarters of the

globe.

The roving tribes of Indians who inhabited this country when

discovered and settled by the whites, had no orchards--they lived by

the chase, and only gathered such fruits as were native to the soil.

Among the earliest attempts to civilize them, however, those that

exerted the greatest influence, were efforts to make them an

agricultural people, and of these the planting of fruit-trees was one

of the most successful. In many parts of the country we find relics of

these old Indian orchards still remaining, and it is probable that

from the apple seeds sent by the general government for distribution

among the Cherokees in Georgia, we are now reaping some of the most

valuable fruits of this species. The early French settlers were famous

tree-planters, and we find their traces across the continent, from the

St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. These consist in noble pear and

apple trees, grown from seeds planted by them, at their early and

scattered posts or settlements. These were made far in advance of the

pioneers, who have, at a later period, formed the van of civilization,

that soon spread into a solid phalanx in its march throughout the

great interior valley of the continent.

On the borders of civilization we sometimes meet with a singular

being, more savage than polished, and yet useful in his way. Such an

one in the early settlement of the northwestern territory was Johnny

Apple-seed--a simple-hearted being, who loved to roam through the

forests in advance of his fellows, consorting, now with the red man,

now with the white, a sort of connecting link--by his white brethren

he was, no doubt, considered rather a vagabond, for we do not learn

that he had the industry to open farms in the wilderness, the energy

to be a great hunter, nor the knowledge and devotion to have made him

a useful missionary among the red men. But Johnny had his use in the

world. It was his universal custom, when among the whites, to save the

seeds of all the best apples he met with. These he carefully preserved

and carried with him, and when far away from his white friends, he

would select an open spot of ground, prepare the soil, and plant these

seeds, upon the principle of the old Spanish custom, that he owed so

much to posterity, so that some day, the future traveler or inhabitant

of those fertile valleys, might enjoy the fruits of his early efforts.

Such was Johnny Apple-seed--did he not erect for himself monuments

more worthy, if not more enduring, than piles of marble or statues of

brass?

In tracing the progress of fruits through different portions of our

country, we should very naturally expect to find the law that governs

the movements of men, applying with equal force to the fruits they

carry with them. The former have been observed to migrate very nearly

on parallels of latitude, so have, in a great degree, the latter; and

whenever we find a departure from this order, we may expect to

discover a change, and sometimes a deterioration in the characters of

the fruits thus removed to a new locality. It is true, much of this

alteration, whether improvement or otherwise, may be owing to the

difference of soil. Western New York received her early fruits from

Connecticut, and Massachusetts; Michigan, Northern Illinois, and

later, Wisconsin and Iowa received theirs in a great degree from New

York. Ohio and Indiana received their fruits mainly from New Jersey,

and Pennsylvania, and we may yet trace this in the prevalence of

certain leading varieties that are scarcely known, and very little

grown on different parallels. The early settlement at the mouth of the

Muskingum river, was made by New England-men, and into the

"Ohio-purchase," they introduced the leading varieties of the apples

of Massachusetts. Among these, the Boston or Roxbury Russet was a

prominent favorite, but it was so changed in its appearance as

scarcely to be recognized by its old admirers, and it was christened

with a new name, the Putnam Russet, under the impression that it was a

different variety. Most of the original Putnam varieties have

disappeared from the orchards. Kentucky received her fruits in great

measure from Virginia; Tennessee from the same source and from North

Carolina, and these younger States sent them forward on the great

western march with their hardy sons to southern Indiana, southern

Illinois, to Missouri, and to Arkansas, in all which regions we find

evident traces in the orchards, of the origin of the people who

planted them.

Of course, we shall find many deflections from the precise parallel of

latitude, some inclining to the south, and many turning to the

northward. To the latter we of the West are looking with the greatest

interest, since we so often find that the northern fruits do not

maintain their high characters in their southern or southwestern

migrations, and all winter kinds are apt to become autumnal in their

period of ripening, which makes them less valuable; and because, among

those from a southern origin, we have discovered many of high merit as

to beauty, flavor, and productiveness--and, especially where they are

able to mature sufficiently, they prove to be long keepers, thus

supplying a want which was not filled by fruits of a northern origin.

There may be limits beyond which we cannot transport some sorts to

advantage in either direction, but this too will depend very much upon

the adaptability of our soils to particular varieties.

In every region where fruit has been cultivated we find local

varieties grown from seed, many of these are of sufficient merit to

warrant their propagation, and it behooves us to be constantly on the

look out for them; for though our lists are already sufficiently large

to puzzle the young orchardist in making his selections, we may well

reduce the number by weeding out more of the indifferent fruit, at the

same time that we are introducing those of a superior character. It

has been estimated that there may be as many as one in ten of our

seedling orchard trees that would be ranked as "good," but not one in

a hundred that could be styled "best."[2] Certain individuals have

devoted themselves to the troublesome though thankless office of

collecting these scattered varieties of decided merit, and from their

collections our pomological societies will, from time to time, select

and recommend the best for more extended cultivation. Such devoted men

as H.N. Gillett, Lewis Jones, Reuben Ragan, A.H. Ernst, who have been

industriously engaged in this good work for a quarter of a century,

are entitled to the highest commendation; but there are many others

who have contributed their full share of benefits by their labors in

the same field, to whom also we owe a debt of gratitude. Two of the

chief foci in the Ohio valley from which valuable fruits have been

distributed most largely, were the settlement at the mouth of the

Muskingum, with its Putnam list given below; and a later, but very

important introduction of choice fruits, brought into the Miami

country by Silas Wharton, a nurseryman from Pennsylvania, who settled

among a large body of the religious Society of Friends, in Warren Co.,

Ohio. The impress of this importation is very manifest in all the

country, within a radius of one hundred miles, and some of his fruits

are found doing well in the northwestern part of the State of Ohio, in

northern Indiana, and in an extended region westward.

There are, no doubt, many other local foci, whence good fruits have

radiated to bless regions more or less extensive, and in every

neighborhood we find the name of some early pomologist attached to the

good fruits that he had introduced, thus adding another synonym to the

numerous list of those belonging to so many of our good varieties.

A.W. Putnam commenced an apple nursery in 1794, a few years after the

first white settlement at Marietta, Ohio, the first grafts were set in

the spring of 1796; they were obtained from Connecticut by Israel

Putnam, and were the first set in the State, and grafted by W. Rufus

Putnam. Most of the early orchards of the region were planted from

this nursery. These grafts were taken from the orchard of Israel

Putnam (of wolf-killing memory) in Pomfret, Connecticut. In the Ohio

Cultivator for August 1st, 1846, may be found the following authentic

list of the varieties propagated:--

"1. Putnam Russet, (Roxbury.)

2. Seek-no-further, (Westfield.)

3. Early Chandler.

4. Gilliflower.

5. Pound Royal, (Lowell).

6. Natural, (a seedling).

7. Rhode Island Greening.

8. Yellow Greening.

9. Golden Pippin.

10. Long Island Pippin.

11. Tallman Sweeting.

12. Striped Sweeting.

13. Honey Greening.

14. Kent Pippin.

15. Cooper.

16. Striped Gilliflower.

17. Black, do.

18. Prolific Beauty.

19. Queening, (Summer Queen?)

20. English Pearmain.

21. Green Pippin.

22. Spitzenberg, (Esopus?)

Many of these have disappeared from the orchards and from the

nurserymen's catalogues."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Companion for the Orchard.--Phillips.

[2] Elliott--Western Fruits.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE APPLE.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE OUTSET. APPLE A GENERIC TERM, AS CORN IS FOR

DIFFERENT GRAINS; BIBLE AND HISTORIC USE OF THE WORD THEREFORE

UNCERTAIN. ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD. BOTANICAL CHARACTERS.

IMPROVABILITY OF THE APPLE. NATIVE COUNTRY. CRUDE NOTIONS OF

EARLY VARIETIES. PLINY'S ACCOUNT EXPLAINED. CHARLATAN GRAFTING.

INTRODUCTION INTO BRITAIN. ORIGINAL SORTS THERE. GERARD'S LIST

OF SEVEN. HE URGES ORCHARD PLANTING. RECIPE FOR POMATUM.

DERIVATION OF THE WORD. VIRGIL'S ADVICE AS TO GRAFTING. PLINY'S

EULOGY OF THE APPLE: WILL OURS SURVIVE AS LONG? PLINY'S LIST

OF 29. ACCIDENTAL ORIGIN OF OUR FRUITS. CROSSING. LORD BACON'S

GUESS. BRADLEY'S ACCOUNT. SUCCESS IN THE NETHERLANDS. MR.

KNIGHT'S EXPERIMENTS. HYBRIDS INFERTILE. LIMITS, NONE NATURAL.

LIMITS OF SPECIES. HERBERT'S VIEWS. DIFFICULTIES ATTEND

CROSSING ALSO. NO MULES. KIRTLAND'S EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS OF.

VAN MONS' THEORY. ILLINOIS RESULTS. RUNNING OUT OF VARIETIES.

In attempting to trace out the history of any plant that has long been

subjected to the dominion of man, we are beset with difficulties

growing out of the uncertainty of language, and arising also from the

absence of precise terms of science in the descriptions or allusions

which we meet respecting them. As he who would investigate the

history of our great national grain crop, the noble Indian maize,

which, in our language, claims the generic term corn, will at once

meet with terms apt to mislead him in the English translation of the

Bible, and in the writings of Europeans, who use the word corn in a

generic sense, as applying to all the edible grains, and especially to

wheat--so in this investigation we may easily be misled by meeting the

word apple in the Bible and in the translations of Latin and Greek

authors, and we may be permitted to question whether the original

words translated apple may not have been applied to quite different

fruits, or perhaps we may ask whether our word may not originally have

had a more general sense, meaning as it does, according to its

derivation, any round body.

The etymology of the word apple is referred by the lexicographers to

_abhall_, Celtic; _avall_, Welsh; _afall_ or _avall_, Armoric; _aval_

or _avel_, Cornish; and these are all traceable to the Celtic word

_ball_, meaning simply a round body.

Worcester traces the origin of apple directly to the German _apfel_,

which he derives from _æpl_, _apel_, or _appel_.

Webster cites the Saxon _appl_ or _appel_; Dutch, _appel_; German,

_apfel_; Danish, _æble_; Swedish, _aple_; Welsh, _aval_; Irish,

_abhal_ or _ubhal_; Armoric, _aval_; Russian, _yabloko_.

Its meaning being fruit in general, with a round form. Thus the

Persian word _ubhul_ means Juniper berries, and in Welsh the word used

means other fruits, and needs a qualifying term to specify the variety

or kind.

Hogg, in his British Pomology, quoting Owen, says, the ancient

Glastonbury was called by the Britons _Ynys avallac_ or _avallon_,

meaning an apple orchard, and from this came the Roman word

_avallonia_, from this he infers that the apple was known to the

Britons before the advent of the Romans. We are told, that in 973,

King Edgar, when fatigued with the labors of the chase, laid himself

down under a wild apple tree, so that it becomes a question whether

this plant was not a native of England as of other parts of Europe,

where in many places it is found growing wild and apparently

indigenous. Thornton informs us in his history of Turkey, that apples

are common in Wallachia, and he cites among the varieties one, the

_domniasca_, "which is perhaps the finest in Europe, both for its

size, color, and flavor." It were hard to say what variety this is,

and whether it be known to us.

The introduction of this word apple in the Bible is attributable to

the translators, and some commentators suggest that they have used it

in its general sense, and that in the following passages where it

occurs, it refers to the citron, orange, or some other subtropical

fruit.

"Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples."--Songs of Solomon ii,

5.

"As the apple-tree (citron) among the trees of the wood, * * * I sat

me down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet

to my taste."--Sol. ii, 2.

* * * "I raised thee up under the apple-tree."--Solomon viii, 5.

"A word fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures of

silver."--Prov. xxv, 11.

The botanical position of the cultivated apple may be stated as

follows:--Order, _Rosaceæ_; sub-order, _Pomeæ_; or the apple family

and genus, _Pyrus_. The species under our consideration is the _Pyrus

Malus_, or apple. It has been introduced into this country from

Europe, and is now found in a half-wild state, springing up in old

fields, hedge-rows, and roadsides; but, even in such situations, by

their eatable fruit and broad foliage, and by the absence of spiny or

thorny twigs, the trees generally give evidence of a civilized origin.

It is not that the plant has changed any of its true specific

characters, but that it has been affected by the meliorating

influences of culture, which it has not been able entirely to shake

off in its neglected condition. Sometimes, indeed, trees are found in

these neglected and out-of-the-way situations, which produce fruits of

superior quality--and the sorts have been gladly introduced into our

nurseries and orchards.

Very early in the history of horticulture the apple attracted

attention by its improvability, showing that it belonged to the class

of culture-plants. Indeed it is a very remarkable fact in the study of

botany, and the pivot upon which the science and art of horticulture

turns, that while there are plants which show no tendency to change

from their normal type, even when brought under the highest culture,

and subjected to every treatment which human ingenuity can suggest,

there are others which are prone to variations or sports, even in

their natural condition, but more so when they are carefully nursed by

the prudent farmer or gardener. These may be called respectively the

plants of nature and the plants of culture. Some of the former furnish

human food, and are otherwise useful to man; but the latter class

embraces by far the larger number of food-plants, and we are indebted

to this pliancy, aided by human skill, for our varieties of fruits,

our esculent vegetables, and the floral ornaments of our gardens.

The native country of the apple, though not definitively settled, is

generally conceded to be Europe, particularly its southern portions,

and perhaps Western Asia: that is, the plant known and designated by

botanists as _Pyrus Malus_, for there are other and distinct species

in America and Asia which have no claims to having been the source of

our favorite orchard fruits. Our own native crab is the _Pyrus

coronaria_, which, though showing some slight tendency to variation,

has never departed from the strongly marked normal type. The _P.

baccata_, or Siberian crab, is so distinctly marked as to be admitted

as a species. It has wonderfully improved under culture, and has

produced some quite distinct varieties; it has even been hybridized by

Mr. Knight, with the cultivated sorts of the common Wilding or Crab of

Europe, the _P. Malus_. Pallas, who found it wild near Lake Baikal and

in Daouria, says, it grows only 3 or 4 feet high, with a trunk of as

many inches diameter, and yields pear-shaped berries as large as peas.

The _P. rivularis_, according to Nuttall, is common in the maritime

portions of Oregon, in alluvial forests. The tree attains a height of

15 to 25 feet. It resembles the Siberian Crab, to which it has a close

affinity. The fruit grows in clusters, is purple, scarcely the size of

a cherry, and of an agreeable flavor; sweetish and sub-acid when ripe,

not at all acid and acerb as the _P. coronaria_.[3]

Among the early writers upon the subject of pomology, we find some

very crude notions, particularly in regard to the wonderful powers of

the grafter, for this art of improving the Wilding by inserting buds

or scions of better sorts, and thus multiplying trees of good kinds,

was a very ancient invention. Pliny, the naturalist, certainly

deserves our praise for his wonderful and comprehensive industry in

all branches of natural history. In regard to grafting, which seems to

have been well understood in his day, he says, that he had seen near

Thuliæ a tree bearing all manner of fruits, nuts and berries, figs and

grapes, pears and pomegranates; no kind of apple or other fruit that

was not to be found on this tree. It is quaintly noted, however, that

"this tree did not live long,"--is it to be wondered that such should

have been the case? Now some persons may object to the testimony of

this remarkable man, and feel disposed to discredit the statement of

what appears so incredible to those who are at all acquainted with the

well-known necessity for a congenial stock into which the graft should

be inserted. But a more extended knowledge of the subject, would

explain what Pliny has recorded as a marvel of the art. The same thing

has been done in our own times, it is a trick, and one which would

very soon be detected now-a-days by the merest tyro in horticulture,

though it may have escaped the scrutiny of Pliny, whose business it

was to note and record the results of his observations, rather than to

examine the modus of the experiment. By the French, the method is

called Charlatan grafting, and is done by taking a stock of suitable

size, hollowing it out, and introducing through its cavity several

stocks of different kinds, upon each of which may be produced a

different sort of fruit, as reported by Pliny. The needed affinity of

the scion and stock, and the possible range that may be successfully

taken in this mode of propagation, with the whole consideration of the

influence of the stock upon the graft, will be more fully discussed in

another chapter.

Though it be claimed and even admitted that the wild apple or crab was

originally a native of Britain, and though it be well known that many

varieties have originated from seed in that country, still it appears

from their own historians that the people introduced valuable

varieties from abroad. Thus we find in Fuller's account, that in the

16th year of the reign of Henry VIII, Pippins were introduced into

England by Lord Maschal, who planted them at Plumstead, in Sussex.

After this, the celebrated Golden Pippin was originated at Perham

Park, in Sussex, and this variety has attained a high meed of praise

in that country and in Europe, though it has never been considered so

fine in this country as some of our own seedlings. Evelyn says, in

1685, at Lord Clarendon's seat, at Swallowfield, Berks, there is an

orchard of one thousand golden and other cider Pippins.[4] The Ribston

Pippin, which every Englishman will tell you is the best apple in the

world, was a native of Ribston Park, Yorkshire. Hargrave says: "This

place is remarkable for the produce of a delicious apple, called the

Ribston Park Pippin." The original tree was raised from a Pippin

brought from France.[5] This apple is well-known in this country, but

not a favorite.

At a later period, 1597, John Gerard issued in an extensive folio his

History of Plants, in which he mentions seven kinds of Pippins. The

following is given as a sample of the pomology of that day:--

"The fruit of apples do differ in greatnesse, forme, colour, and

taste, some covered with red skin, others yellow or greene, varying

infinitely according to soil and climate; some very greate, some very

little, and many of middle sort; some are sweet of taste, or something

soure, most be of middle taste between sweet and soure; the which to

distinguish, I think it impossible, notwithstanding I heare of one who

intendeth to write a peculiar volume of apples and the use of them."

He further says: "The tame and grafted apple trees are planted and set

in gardens and orchards made for that purpose; they delight to growe

in good fertile grounds. Kent doth abounde with apples of most sortes;

but I have seen pastures and hedge-rows about the grounds of a

worshipful gentleman dwelling two miles from Hereford, so many trees

of all sortes, that the seruantes drinke for the moste parte no other

drinke but that which is made of apples. * * * Like as there be divers

manured apples, so is there sundry wilde apples or crabs, not

husbanded, that is, not grafted." He also speaks of the Paradise,

which is probably the same we now use as a dwarfing stock.

Dr. Gerard fully appreciated the value of fruits, and thus vehemently

urges his countrymen to plant orchards: "Gentlemen, that have land and

living, put forward, * * * * * graft, set, plant, and nourish up trees

in every corner of your grounds; the labor is small, the cost is

nothing, the commoditie is great, yourselves shall have plentie, the

poor shall have somewhat in time of want to relieve their necessitie,

and God shall reward your good minde and diligence." The same author

gives us a peculiar use of the apple which may be interesting to some

who never before associated _pomatum_ with the products of the

orchard. He recommends apples as a cosmetic. "There is made an

ointment with the pulp of apples, and swine's grease and rose water,

which is used to beautify the face and to take away the roughness of

the skin; it is called in shops _pomatum_, of the apples whereof it is

made."[6] When speaking of the importance of grafting to increase the

number of trees of any good variety, Virgil advises to

"Graft the tender shoot,

Thy children's children shall enjoy the fruit."

So high an estimate did Pliny have of this fruit, that he asserted

that "there are apples that have ennobled the countries from whence

they came, and many apples have immortalized their first founders and

inventors. Our best apples will immortalize their first grafters

forever; such as took their names from Manlius, Cestius, Matius, and

Claudius."--Of the Quince apple, he says, that came of a quince being

grafted upon the apple stock, which "smell like the quince, and were

called _Appiana_, after Appius, who was the first that practiced this

mode of grafting. Some are so red that they resemble blood, which is

caused by their being grafted upon the mulberry stock. Of all the

apples, the one which took its name from Petisius, was the most

excellent for eating, both on account of its sweetness and its

agreeable flavor." Pliny mentions twenty-nine kinds of apples

cultivated in Italy, about the commencement of the Christian Era.[7]

Alas! for human vanity and apple glory! Where are now these boasted

sorts, upon whose merits the immortality of their inventors and first

grafters was to depend? They have disappeared from our lists to give

place to new favorites, to some of which, perhaps, we are disposed to

award an equally high meed of praise, that will again be ignored in a

few fleeting years, when higher skill and more scientific applications

of knowledge shall have produced superior fruit to any of those we now

prize so highly; and this is a consummation to which we may all look

forward with pleasure.

In this country the large majority of our favorite fruits, of whatever

species or kind, seem to have originated by accident, that is, they

have been discovered in seedling orchards, or even in hedge-rows.

These have no doubt, however, been produced by accidental crosses of

good kinds, and this may occur through the intervention of insects in

any orchard of good fruit, where there may chance to be some varieties

that have the tendency to progress. The discoveries of Linnæus, and

his doctrine of the sexual characters of plants, created quite a

revolution in botany, and no doubt attracted the attention of Lord

Bacon, who was a close observer of nature, for he ventured to guess

that there might be such a thing as crossing the breeds of plants,

when he says:--"The compounding or mixture of kinds in plants is not

found out, which, nevertheless, if it be possible, is more at command

than that of living creatures; wherefore it were one of the most

noteable experiments touching plants to find it out, for so you may

have great variety of new fruits and flowers yet unknown. Grafting

does it not, that mendeth the fruit or doubleth the flowers, etc., but

hath not the power to make a new kind, for the scion ever overruleth

the stock." In which last observation he shows more knowledge and a

deeper insight into the hidden mysteries of plant-life than many a man

in our day, whose special business it is to watch, nurse, and care for

these humble forms of existence.

Bradley, about a century later, in 1718, is believed to have been the

first author who speaks of the accomplishment of cross-breeding, which

he describes as having been effected by bringing together the branches

of different trees when in blossom. But the gardeners of Holland and

the Netherlands were the first to put it into practice.[8]

The following extract is given to explain the manner in which Mr.

Knight conducted his celebrated experiments on fruits, which rewarded

him with some varieties that were highly esteemed:--"Many varieties of

the apple were collected which had been proved to afford, in mixtures

with each other, the finest cider. A tree of each was then obtained by

grafting upon a Paradise stock, and these trees were trained to a

south wall, or if grafted on Siberian crab, to a west wall, till they

afforded blossoms, and the soil in which they were planted was made of

the most rich and favorable kind. Each blossom of this species of

fruit contains about twenty chives or males (stamens,) and generally

five pointals or females (pistils,) which spring from the center of

the cup or cavity of the blossom. The males stand in a circle just

within the bases of the petals, and are formed of slender threads,

each of which terminates in an anther. It is necessary in these

experiments that both the fruit and seed should attain as large a size

and as much perfection as possible, and therefore a few blossoms only

were suffered to remain on each tree. As soon as the blossoms were

nearly full-grown, every male in each was carefully extracted, proper

care being taken not to injure the pointals; and the blossoms, thus

prepared, were closed again, and suffered to remain till they opened

spontaneously. The blossoms of the tree which it was proposed to make

the male parent of the future variety, were accelerated by being

brought into contact with the wall, or retarded by being detached from

it, so that they were made to unfold at the required period; and a

portion of their pollen, when ready to fall from the mature anthers,

was during three or four successive mornings deposited upon the

pointals of the blossoms, which consequently afforded seeds. It is

necessary in this experiment that one variety of apple only should

bear unmutilated blossoms; for, where other varieties are in flower at

the same time, the pollen of these will often be conveyed by bees to

the prepared blossoms, and the result of the experiment will in

consequence be uncertain and unsatisfactory." * * *

In his Pomona Herefordiensis, he says:--"It is necessary to contrive

that the two trees from which you intend to raise the new kind, shall

blossom at the same time; therefore, if one is an earlier sort than

the other, it must be retarded by shading or brought into a cooler

situation, and the latest forwarded by a warm wall or a sunny

position, so as to procure the desired result."

We must distinguish between hybrids proper and crosses, as it were

between races or between what may have been erroneously designated

species, for there has been a great deal of looseness in the manner of

using these terms by some writers. A true _hybrid_[9] is produced only

when the pollen of one species has been used to fertilize the ovules

of another, and as a general rule these can only be produced between

plants which are very nearly allied, as between species of the same

genus. Even such as these, however, cannot always be hybridized, for

we have never found a mule or hybrid between the apple and pear, the

currant and gooseberry, nor between the raspberry and blackberry,

though each of these, respectively, appear to be very nearly related,

and they are all of the order _Rosaceæ_.

In hybrids there appears to be a mixture of the elements of each, and

the characters of the mule or cross will depend upon one or the other,

which it will more nearly resemble. True hybrids are mules or

infertile, and cannot be continued by seed, but must be propagated by

cuttings, or layers, or grafting. If not absolutely sterile at first,

they become so in the course of the second or third generation. This

is proved by several of our flowering plants that have been

wonderfully varied by ingenious crossing of different species. But it

has been found that the hybrid may be fertilized by pollen taken from

one of its parents, and that then the offspring assumes the characters

of that parent.[10]

Natural hybrids do not often occur, though in dioecious plants, this

seems to have been the case with willows that present such an

intricate puzzle to botanists in their classification, so that it has

become almost impossible to say what are the limits and bounds of some

of the species. Hybrids are, however, very frequently produced by art,

and particularly among our flowering plants, under the hands of

ingenious gardeners. Herbert thinks, from his observations, "that the

flowers and organs of reproduction partake of the characters of the

female parent, while the foliage and habit, or the organs of

vegetation, resemble the male."

Simply crossing different members of the same species, like the

crossing of races in animal life, is not always easily accomplished;

but we here find much less difficulty, and we do not produce a mule

progeny. In these experiments the same precautions must be taken to

avoid the interference of natural agents in the transportation of

pollen from flower to flower; but this process is now so familiar to

horticulturists, that it scarcely needs a mention. In our efforts with

the strawberry, some very curious results have occurred, and we have

learned that some of the recognized species appear under this severe

test to be well founded, as the results have been infertile. Where the

perfection of the fruit depends upon the development of the seed, this

is a very important matter to the fruit-grower; but fortunately this

is not always the case, for certain fruits swell and ripen perfectly,

though containing not a single well developed seed. It would be an

interesting study to trace out those plants which do furnish a well

developed fleshy substance or sarcocarp, without the true seeds. Such

may be found occasionally in the native persimmon, in certain grapes,

and in many apples; but in the strawberry, blackberry, and raspberry,

the berry which constitutes our desirable fruit, never swells unless

the germs have been impregnated and the seeds perfect. In the

stone-fruits the stone or pit is always developed, but the enclosed

seed is often imperfect from want of impregnation or other cause--and

yet the fleshy covering will sometimes swell and ripen.

One of the most successful experimenters in this country is Doctor

J.P. Kirtland, near Cleveland, Ohio, whose efforts at crossing certain

favorite cherries, were crowned with the most happy results, and all

are familiar with the fruits that have been derived from his crosses.

The details of his applying the pollen of one flower to the pistils of

another are familiar to all intelligent readers, and have been so

often set forth, that they need not be repeated in this case--great

care is necessary to secure the desired object, and to guard against

interference from causes that would endanger or impair the value of

the results.

Van Mons' theory was based upon certain assumptions and observations,

some of which are well founded, others are not so firmly established.

He claimed correctly that all our best fruits were artificial

products, because the essential elements for the preservation of the

species in their natural condition, are vigor of the plant and perfect

seeds for the perpetuation of the race. It has been the object of

culture to diminish the extreme vigor of the tree so as to produce

early fruitage, and at the same time to enlarge and to refine the

pulpy portion of the fruit. He claimed, as a principle, that our

plants of culture had always a tendency to run back toward the

original or wild type, when they were grown from seeds. This tendency

is admitted to exist in many cases, but it is also claimed, that when

a break is once made from the normal type, the tendency to improve may

be established. Van Mons asserted that the seeds from old trees would

be still more apt to run back toward the original type, and that "the

older the tree, the nearer will the seedlings raised from it approach

the wild state," though he says they will not quite reach it. But the

seeds from a young tree, having itself the tendency to melioration,

are more likely to produce improved sorts.

He thinks there is a limit to perfection, and that, when this is

reached, the next generation will more probably produce bad fruit than

those grown from an inferior sort, which is on the upward road of

progression. He claims that the seeds of the oldest varieties of good

fruit yield inferior kinds, whereas those taken from new varieties of

bad fruit, and reproduced for several generations, will certainly give

satisfactory results in good fruit.

He began with seeds from a young seedling tree, not grafted upon

another stock; he cared nothing for the quality of the fruit, but

preferred that the variety was showing a tendency to improvement or

_variation_. These were sowed, and from the plants produced, he

selected such as appeared to him to have evidence of improvement, (it

is supposed by their less wild appearance), and transplanted them to

stations where they could develop themselves. When they fruited, even

if indifferent, if they continued to give evidence of variation, the

first seeds were saved and planted and treated in the same way. These

came earlier into fruit than the first, and showed a greater promise.

Successive generations were thus produced to the fourth and fifth,

each came into bearing earlier than its predecessor, and produced a

greater number of good varieties, and he says that in the fifth

generation they were nearly all of great excellence. He found pears

required the longest time, five generations; while the apple was

perfected in four, and stone fruits in three.

Starting upon the theory that we must subdue the vigor of the wilding

to produce the best fruits, he cut off the tap roots when

transplanting and shortened the leaders, and crowded the plants in the

orchard or fruiting grounds, so as to stand but a few feet apart. He

urged the "regenerating in a direct line of descent as rapidly as

possible an improving variety, taking care that there be no interval

between the generations. To sow, re-sow, to sow again, to sow

perpetually, in short to do nothing but sow, is the practice to be

pursued, and which cannot be departed from; and, in short, this is the

whole secret of the art I have employed." (_Arbres Fruitiers._)

Who else would have the needed patience and perseverance to pursue

such a course? Very few, indeed--especially if they were not very

fully convinced of the correctness of the premises upon which this

theory is founded. Mr. Downing thinks that the great numbers of fine

varieties of apples that have been produced in this country, go to

sustain the Van Mons doctrine, because, as he assumes, the first

apples that were produced from seeds brought over by the early

emigrants, yielded inferior fruit which had run back toward the wild

state, and the people were forced to begin again with them, and that

they most naturally pursued this very plan, taking seeds from the

improving varieties for the next generations and so on. This may have

been so, but it is mere assumption--we have no proof, and, on the

contrary, our choice varieties have so generally been conceded to have

been chance seedlings, that there appears little evidence to support

it--on the contrary, some very fine varieties have been produced by

selecting the seeds of good sorts promiscuously, and without regarding

the age of the trees from which the fruit was taken. Mr. Downing

himself, after telling us that we have much encouragement to

experiment upon this plan of perfecting fruits, by taking seeds from

such as are not quite ripe, gathered from a seedling of promising

quality, from a healthy young tree (quite young,) on its own root, not

grafted, and that we "must avoid 1st, the seeds of old trees; 2d,

those of grafted trees; 3d, that we must have the best grounds for

good results"--still admits what we all know, that "in this country,

new varieties of rare excellence are sometimes obtained at once by

planting the seeds of old grafted varieties; thus the Lawrence

Favorite and the Columbia Plums were raised from seeds of the Green

Gage, one of the oldest European varieties."

Let us now look at an absolute experiment conducted avowedly upon the

Van Mons plan in our own country, upon the fertile soil of the State

of Illinois, and see to what results it led:--

The following facts have been elicited from correspondence with H.P.

Brayshaw, of Du Quoin, Illinois. The experiments were instituted by

his father many years ago, to test the truth of the Van Mons' theory

of the improvement of fruits by using only the first seeds.

Thirty-five years ago, in 1827, his father procured twenty-five

seedling trees from a nursery, which may be supposed to have been an

average lot, grown from promiscuous seed. These were planted, and when

they came into bearing, six of them furnished fruit that might be

called "_good_" and of these, "four were considered _fine_." One of

the six is still in cultivation, and known as the _Illinois Greening_.

Of the remainder of the trees, some of the fruits were fair, and the

rest were worthless, and have disappeared.

_Second Generation._--The first fruits of these trees were selected,

and the seeds were sown. Of the resulting crop, some furnished fruit

that was "good," but they do not appear to have merited much

attention.

_Third Generation._--From first seeds of the above, one hundred trees

were produced, some of which were good fruit, and some "even fine,"

while some were very poor, "four or five only merited attention." So

that we see a retrogression from the random seedlings, furnishing

twenty-five per cent, of good fruit, to only four or five per cent. in

the third generation, that were worthy of note.

_Fourth Generation._--A crop of the first seed was again sown,

producing a fourth generation; of these many were "good culinary

fruits," none, or very few being of the "poorest class of seedlings,"

none of them, however, were fine enough "for the dessert."

_Fifth Generation._--This crop of seedlings was destroyed by the

cut-worms, so that only one tree now remains, but has not yet fruited.

But Mr. Brayshaw appears to feel hopeful of the results, and promises

to continue the experiment.

Crops have also been sown from some of these trees, but a smaller

proportion of the seedlings thus produced were good fruits, than when

the first seeds were used--this Mr. Brayshaw considers confirmatory

evidence of the theory, though he appears to feel confidence in the

varieties already in use, most of which had almost an accidental

origin.

He thinks the result would have been more successful had the blossoms

been protected from impregnation by other trees, and recommends that

those to be experimented with should be planted at a distance from

orchards, so as to avoid this cross-breeding, and to allow of what is

called breeding in-and-in. If this were done, he feels confident that

"the seedlings would more nearly resemble the parent, and to a certain

extent would manifest the tendency to improvement, and that from the

earliest ripened fruits, some earlier varieties would be produced,

from those latest ripening, later varieties, from those that were

inferior and insipid, poor sorts would spring, and that from the very

best and most perfect fruits we might expect one in one thousand, or

one-tenth of one per cent., to be better than the parent." This

diminishes the chance for improvement to a beautifully fine point upon

which to hang our hopes of the result of many generations of seedlings

occupying more than a lifetime of experiments.

Mr. Brayshaw, citing some of the generally adopted axioms of breeders

of animals, assumes that _crosses_, as of distinct races, will not be

so likely to produce good results, as a system of breeding in-and-in,

persistently carried out. This plan he recommends, and alludes to the

quince and mulberry as suitable species to operate upon, because in

them there are fewer varieties, and therefore less liability to

cross-breeding, and a better opportunity for breeding in-and-in. He

also reminds us of the happy results which follow the careful

selection of the best specimens in garden flowers and vegetables,

combined with the rejection of all inferior plants, when we desire to

improve the character of our garden products, and he adopts the views

of certain physiologists, which, however, are questioned by other

authorities, to the effect that violent or decided crosses are always

followed by depreciation and deterioration of the offspring.

The whole communication referring to these experiments, which are

almost the only ones, so far as I know, which have been conducted in

this country to any extent, to verify or controvert the Van Mons'

theory, is very interesting, but it is easy to perceive that the

experimenter, though apparently very fair, and entirely honest, has

been fully imbued with the truth and correctness of the proposition of

Van Mons, that the first ripened seed of a natural plant was more

likely to produce an improved variety, and that this tendency to

improvement would ever increase, and be most prominent in the first

ripened seeds of successive generations grown from it.

The theory of Van Mons I shall not attempt in this place to

controvert, but will simply say that nothing which has yet come under

my observation has had a tendency to make me a convert to the avowed

views of that great Belgian Pomologist, while, on the contrary, the

rumors of his opponents, that he was really attempting to produce

crosses from some of the best fruits, as our gardeners have most

successfully done in numerous instances, in the beautiful flowers and

delicious vegetables of modern horticulture, have always impressed me

with a color of probability, and if he were not actually and

intentionally impregnating the blossoms with pollen of the better

varieties, natural causes, such as the moving currents of air, and the

ever active insects, whose special function in many instances appears

to be the conveyance of pollen, would necessarily cause an admixture,

which, in a promiscuous and crowded collection, like the "school of

Van Mons," would at least have an equal chance of producing an

improvement in some of the resulting seeds.

The whole subject of variation in species, the existence of varieties,

and also of those partial _sports_, which may perhaps be considered as

still more temporary variations from the originals, than those which

come through the seeds, is one of deep interest, well worthy of our

study, but concerning which we must confess ourselves as yet quite

ignorant, and our best botanists do not agree even as to the

_specific_ distinctions that have been set up as characters of some of

our familiar plants, for the most eminent differ with regard to the

species of some of our common trees and plants.

RUNNING OUT OF VARIETIES.

It has been a very generally received opinion among intelligent

fruit-growers, that any given variety of fruit can have but a limited

period of existence, be that longer or shorter. Reasoning from the

analogies of animal life this would appear very probable, for it is

well known that individuals of different species all have a definite

period of life, some quite brief, others quite extended, beyond which

they do not survive. But with our modern views of vegetation, though

we know that all perennial plants do eventually die and molder away to

the dust from whence they were created, and that many trees of our own

planting come to an untimely end, while we yet survive to observe

their decay, still, we can see no reason why a tree or parts of a tree

taken from it, and placed under circumstances favorable to its growth

from time to time, may not be sempiternal. Harvey has placed this

matter in a correct light, by showing that the true life and history

of a tree is in the buds, which are annual, while the tree itself is

the connecting link between them and the ground. 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.

The distinguished Thomas Andrew Knight, President of the London

Horticultural Society, was one of the leading advocates of the theory

that varieties would necessarily run out and disappear as it were by

exhaustion.

In his Pomona Herefordiensis, he tells us that "those apples, which

have been long in cultivation, are on the decay. The Redstreak and

Golden Pippin can no longer be propagated with advantage. The fruit,

like the parent tree, is affected by the debilitated old age of the

variety." And in his treatise on the culture of the apple and pear, he

says: "The Moil and its successful rival, the Redstreak, with the Must

and Golden Pippin, are in the last stage of decay, and the Stire and

Foxwhelp are hastening rapidly after them." In noticing the decay of

apple trees, Pliny probably refers to particular trees, rather than

the whole of any variety, when he says that "apples become old sooner

than any other tree, and the fruit becomes smaller and is subject to

be cankered and worm-eaten, even while on the trees."--Lib. XVI, Chap.

27.

Speechly combated the views of Mr. Knight, and says: "It is much to be

regretted that this apparently visionary notion of the extinction of

certain kinds of apples should have been promulgated by authors of

respectability, since the mistake will, for a time at least, be

productive of several ill consequences."

Some of the old English varieties that were supposed to be worn out or

exhausted, appear to have taken a new lease of life in this country,

but we have not yet had a long enough experience to decide this

question. Many of the earlier native favorites of the orchard have,

for some reason, disappeared from cultivation--whether they have run

out, were originally deficient in vigor, or have merely been

superseded by more acceptable varieties, does not appear.

Mr. Phillips, in his Companion, states "that in 1819, he observed a

great quantity of the Golden Pippin in Covent Garden Market, which

were in perfect condition, and was induced to make inquiries

respecting the health of the variety, which resulted in satisfactory

replies from all quarters, that the trees were recovering from

disease, which he thought had been induced by a succession of

unpropitious seasons. He cites Mr. Ronald's opinion, that there was

then no fear of losing this variety; and Mr. Lee, who thought that the

apparent decay of some trees was owing to unfavorable seasons. Mr.

Harrison informed him that this variety was very successfully grown on

the mountains of the island of Madeira, at an elevation of 3000 feet,

and produced abundantly. Also that the variety was quite satisfactory

in many parts of England, and concludes that the Golden Pippin only

requires the most genial situation, to render it as prolific is

formerly."

It is quite probable, as Phillips suggests, that Mr. Knight had

watched the trees during unfavorable seasons which prevailed at that

period, and as he found the disease increase, he referred it to the

old age of the variety, and based his theory to that effect upon

partial data.

Mr. Knight's views, though they have taken a strong hold upon the

popular mind, have not been confirmed by physiologists. For though the

seed would appear to be the proper source whence to derive our new

plants, and certainly our new varieties of fruits, many plants have,

for an indefinite period, been propagated by layers, shoots or scions,

buds, tubers, etc., and that the variety has thus been extended much

beyond the period of the life of the parent or original seedling.

Strawberries are propagated and multiplied by the runners, potatoes by

tubers, the Tiger Lily by bulblets, some onions by proliferous bulbs,

sugarcane by planting pieces of the stalk, many grapes by horizontal

stems, and many plants by cuttings, for a very great length of time.

The grape vine has been continued in this way from the days of the

Romans. A slip taken from a willow in Mr. Knight's garden pronounced

by him to be dying from old age, was planted in the Edinburgh Botanic

Garden many years ago, and is now a vigorous tree, though the original

stock has long since gone to decay.[11]

FOOTNOTES:

[3] North American Sylva, Nuttall II, p. 25.

[4] Diary.

[5] History of Knaresborough, p. 216.--Companion of the Orchard, p. 34.

[6] Our lexicographers give it a similar origin, but refer it to the

shape in which it was put up. Others derive it from _poma_, Spanish, a

box of perfume.

[7] Phillips' Companion, p. 32.

[8] Phillips' Companion, p. 41.

[9] Balfour's Manual.

[10] Balfour's Manual.

[11] Balfour's Manual, p. 284.

CHAPTER III.

PROPAGATION.--SECTION I.

ALL GROWTH IS DEPENDANT UPON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CELLS. THE SEED

AND THE BUD; THEIR RESEMBLANCE. THE INDIVIDUALITY OF BUDS. THE

BASIS OF ALL PROPAGATION. BUDS ARE DEVELOPED INTO TWIGS; HAVE

POWER OF EMITTING ROOTS. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF

CELL-GROWTH. BY CUTTINGS: PREPARATION AND SELECTION.

HEEL-CUTTINGS. SOFT WOOD. HARD WOOD. SEASONS FOR EACH. FALL

PLANTING. THE CALLUS, OR DEVELOPMENT OF CELL-GROWTH. BOTTOM

HEAT; WHY BENEFICIAL. WHY SPRING CUTTINGS FAIL. STIMULUS OF

LIGHT UPON THE BUDS, CAUSES THEM TO EXPAND, AND THE LEAVES

EVAPORATE TOO FREELY. ROOT CUTTINGS; DIFFERENT FRUITS THUS

PROPAGATED. BY SUCKERS: OBJECTIONS TO ANSWERED. SUCKER

ORCHARDS; BEAR EARLY. SUCKER TREES APT TO SUCKER AGAIN. BY

LAYERS: A NATURAL METHOD. HOW PERFORMED. THE RASPBERRY AND THE

GRAPE. ILLUSTRATIONS OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL METHODS. QUINCE

STOCKS. ADJUVANTS TO LAYERING, NOTCHING, ETC. BY SEEDS: HOW IT

DIFFERS FROM THE OTHERS. APPLE SEEDLINGS. THEIR TREATMENT,

SEPARATING, AND PREPARING THE SEED. APPARATUS. SPROUTING.

SOWING. CULTIVATION. SEEDLINGS. TREATMENT. SORTING. PACKING.

All propagation of plants must depend upon the development of seeds or

of buds, and all will arise from the growth and extension of cells.

The seed and the bud are much more nearly related than a casual

observer would at first sight suppose. The early phylologists thought

they discovered that in the seed was enwrapped the image of the future

tree--a dissection of the seed would appear to demonstrate this. It is

composed of separate parts which are capable of being developed into

the root, stem, and appendages, but they have yet to be so developed;

the several parts that we find in the seed are merely the

representative parts. But the seed has the future of the tree within

itself, it has certain qualities of the future tree impressed upon it

in its primary organization, within the capsule of the fruit of the

parent plant, so that in a higher sense the image of the future tree

does exist within the seed. Within the bud, still more plainly and

more distinctly visible, is the future tree manifest, and we may

produce a tree from a bud as certainly as we do from a seed. Subjected

to circumstances favorable for growth, the bud, as well as the seed,

will emit roots, will form its stem, branches and appendages, and will

become a tree; differing from the product of the seed only in this,

that in the latter the resulting organism constitutes a new individual

which may vary somewhat from its parent, in the former it is only a

new development of a part of a previously existing organization. The

similarity existing between the two is exceedingly close, and is a

matter of great importance in horticultural operations. Dr. Lindley,

in the Gardener's Chronicle, says very truly, that "every bud of a

tree is an individual vegetable, and a tree, therefore, is a family or

swarm of individual plants, like the polype with its young growing out

of its sides, or like the branching cells of the coral insect."

Similar opinions, more or less modified, have been expressed by

subsequent physiologists, and are familiar to men of science in every

country and, we may add, are also universally accepted as true by all

who claim a right to express an opinion upon the subject.--Men of

science recognize the individuality of buds.--Nobody doubts the

individuality of buds.--In a gardening aspect, the individuality of

buds is the cardinal point upon which some of our most important

operations turn; such, for example, as all modes of propagation

whatever, except by seed. If this be not fully understood, there is no

possible explanation of the reasons why certain results are sure to

follow the attachment of a bud, or the insertion of a graft, or the

planting of a cutting, or the bending of a layer, or the approach of a

scion, or the setting of an eye--our six great forms of artificial

multiplication. In his Elements of Botany, the same writer says: "An

embryo is a young plant produced by the agency of the sexes, and

developed within a seed--a leaf bud is a young plant, produced without

the agency of the sexes, enclosed within the rudimentary leaves called

scales, and developed on a stem." "An embryo propagates the _species_,

leaf-buds propagate the _individual_." He shows each to be "a young

plant developing itself upwards, downwards and horizontally, into

stem, root, and medullary system."

Dr. Schleiden thus beautifully expresses his views of their

individuality: "Now the bud essentially is nothing more than a

repetition of the plant on which it is formed. The foundation of a new

plant consists equally of a stem and leaves, and the sole distinction

is that the stem becomes intimately blended at its base with the

mother plant in its growth, and has no free radical extremity like

that exhibited by a plant developed from a seed. However, this

distinction is not so great as at the first glance it appears. Every

plant of high organization possesses the power of shooting out

adventitious roots from its stem, under the favoring influences of

moisture; and very frequently, even plants that have been raised from

seed, are forced to content themselves with such adventitious roots,

since it is the nature of many plants, for instance the grasses, never

to develop their proper root, although the radicle is actually

present. We are, it is true, accustomed to look upon the matter as

though the buds must always be developed into twigs and branches, on

and in connection with the plant itself; and thus in common life, we

regard them as parts of a plant, and not as independent individuals,

which they are in fact, although they, like children who remain in

their paternal home, retain the closest connection with the plant on

which they were produced. That they are at least capable of becoming

independent plants, is shown by an experiment frequently successful

when the necessary care is taken, namely the breaking off and sowing

of the buds of our forest trees. The well-known garden operations of

grafting and budding are also examples of this, and layering only

differs from the sowing of the buds, in that the buds on the layers

are allowed to acquire a certain degree of maturity before they are

separated from the parent plant. All here depends upon the facility

with which these bud plants root as it is called, that is develop

adventitious roots, when they are brought in contact with moist earth.

* * * Nature herself very often makes use of this method to multiply

certain plants in incalculable numbers. In a few cases, the process

resembles the artificial sowing of buds, as when the plant

spontaneously throws off the perfect buds at a certain period; an

instance of this is afforded by some of our garden Lilies, which throw

off the little bulb-like buds which appear in the axils of the lower

leaves. The more common mode of proceeding is as follows: Those buds

which have been formed near the surface of the soil, grow up into

shoots provided with leaves; but the shoots are long, slender and

delicate, the leaves too are stunted into little scales; in their

axils, however, they develop strong buds, which either in the same or

in the following year take root, and the slender shoot connecting them

with the parent plant, dying and decaying, they become free

independent plants. In this manner the strawberry soon covers a

neglected garden."[12]

Upon the development of a cell in any living tissue, and its power of

reproducing other cells, and upon its function of communicating by

endosmosis and exosmosis with other like cells, depend all our success

in propagating vegetables, whether from seeds or buds, and parts

containing these. We must study the circumstances that favor the

development of cells, if we would be successful in propagating plants.

Each bud being considered an individual, and capable, under favorable

circumstances, of taking on a separate existence, we can multiply any

individual variety indefinitely, and be sure of having the same

qualities of foliage and fruit that we admire in the original, and

that we may desire to propagate. This applies equally to a group of

buds, as in cuttings, grafts and layers, etc.; but, more wonderful

still, there are cells capable of developing buds where none existed

before, and even in tissues or parts of a plant where we do not

usually find buds--hence we have a mode of propagation of many woody

plants, by root cuttings, and by leaves, and even parts of leaves.

PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS.--Many fruits are multiplied by this means.

Healthy shoots of the previous year's growth are usually selected and

taken when the parent is in a dormant state, or still better, when it

is approaching this condition. Sometimes a small portion of the

previous year's growth is left with the cutting, making a sort of

_heel_; when this is not to be had, or not preferred, the slip is to

be prepared for planting by cutting it smoothly just below a bud, as

this seems to be the most favorable point in many plants for the

emission of roots. Some plants will throw out radicles at any point

indifferently along the internodes or merithallus. The preference for

heel-cuttings depends upon the fact, that near the base of the annual

shoot there are always a great number of buds, many of which, however,

being imperfectly developed, are inconspicuous, but though dormant,

they seem to favor the emission of rootlets. Cuttings may be made to

grow if taken at any period of their development, but when green and

soft, they require particular conditions of heat and moisture in the

soil, and atmosphere, that are only under the control of the

professional gardener. They are usually taken in the dormant state,

because they are then susceptible of being made to grow under the

ordinary conditions of out-door gardening. If cut early in the season,

on the approach of autumn, after the wood-growth has been perfected,

they may be planted at once with good prospect of success, or they may

be put into the soil, out of doors, in the cellar, or in a cold frame

or pit, and a very important step in the progress of their growth will

commence at once. The leafless sticks are not dead, and whenever the

temperature will admit of the quiet interchange of fluids among their

cells, this curious function will go on, and will be accompanied by

the development or generation of new cells that soon cover the cut

surfaces, constituting what the gardeners call the _callus_. This is

the first step toward growth, and it most readily occurs when the

earth is warmer than the air; hence the value of fall planting,

whether of trees or of cuttings, if done before the earth has been

chilled, and hence also, the importance of bottom heat in artificial

propagation. If on the contrary the air be warm and the ground cold,

the buds are often stimulated to burst forth, before the rootlets can

have started. The expanding foliage which so delights the tyro in

propagation, offers an extended surface for evaporation, the contained

juices of the cutting itself are soon exhausted, no adequate supply is

furnished, and the hopeful plant soon withers, or damps off, and

dies.[13] The cutting, like the seed, must have "first the root, then

the blade." The length of time that is allowed for cuttings to prepare

for rooting, if they are designed for spring planting, should be as

great as possible, and the circumstances under which they are kept

should be such as to favor the development of the cells, so that roots

may form freely with the breaking of the buds, if not before.

Root-cuttings should be made in the spring, just before the usual

period of the bursting of the buds in the plant to be propagated. The

tendency to develop buds appears to be then most active. Gentle

bottom heat, though not essential, is still very desirable, and will

conduce to the success of the operation. Some plants are best

propagated by this means, and those too, which never naturally produce

suckers, may often be successfully grown by sections of the roots. All

plants do not equally admit of propagation by division as cuttings,

some woody tissues refusing to emit roots under almost any

circumstances.

Nobody thinks of propagating the stone fruits, such as the cherry,

plum, peach, or apricot, by attempting to plant cuttings, and yet some

of these will emit roots very freely, as we may often observe when the

shoots or trimmings are used as supports for plants in the

green-house. The plum tree is exceedingly apt to form new roots when

planted too deeply, and upon this fact depends the success or failure

of the finer varieties when worked upon certain varieties of the wild

stock. If the young trees are earthed up in the nursery, and set

rather deeply in the orchard, they will soon establish a good set of

roots of their own, emitted above the junction of the scion and stock,

which is very preferable to the imperfect union and consequent

enlargement that often results from using uncongenial stocks. The

raspberry and blackberry do not grow so well from cuttings of the

wood, which is always biennial in this genus, as they do from

root-cuttings.

In some parts of the country, peaches are mainly produced, or the

favorite varieties are multiplied, by planting the sprouts that come

from the base of the trunk of the trees; these have little or no roots

when taken off with the mattock, but they soon establish themselves

and make good trees, bearing fruit like their parents, in soils and

climate that are well adapted to this fruit.

Refined and scientific horticulture has been extensively applied to

the multiplication of the grape, which is now produced in immense

numbers, from single eyes, or buds. Formerly our vineyards were formed

by planting long cuttings at once in the field in the stations to be

occupied by the vines, or by setting them first in a nursery, whence

they were transplanted to the vineyard, when one or two years old.

Only the most refractory kinds, which would not grow readily in the

field, or such as were yet rare, were propagated from cuttings, by

using the single eye and artificial bottom heat. Now, however, the

appliances of our propagators are called upon for the production of

grape-vines by the million, and they find it advisable to multiply all

the varieties in this manner. The propagation of the grape by using

single eyes affords the most beautiful illustration of the subject of

the individuality of buds, and though denounced by some as an

unnatural, steam-forcing process, it is really an evidence of the

advance of horticulture, since every step is supported by a

philosophical reason, and the whole process, to be successful, is

dependent upon the application to practice of well established

scientific truths.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--FRENCH AND COMMON MODES OF SETTING

CUTTINGS.]

It has already been stated that the first effect of cell-growth upon a

cutting, is the production of a callus. This callus may form upon any

cut surface, or even where the bark has been abraded. It is the first

effort of nature to repair an injury by the reproduction of new parts;

it is most generally found at the base of the cutting, but under

favorable circumstances, it will be seen also at the upper end of the

shoot if this has been placed in contact with the earth. Cuttings will

sometimes be set up-side down, when we find the callus upon the

smaller end, and roots will be emitted from that portion whence we

should have expected to see the branches issue. Upon this fact, and to

multiply the chances of living, has been based the French method, as

it is called, or that of inserting both ends of the cuttings. The

common mode, (fig. 1), is to set the cuttings in a slanting direction

in the ground, so placed that the upper eye or bud only shall reach

the surface. Formerly there was a preference for long cuttings, and

these were often made eighteen inches or more in length. The practice

with most of our cultivators has been modified in this particular, and

they have reduced the length of the slips to six and eight inches, so

as to have in grape wood about three or four eyes. Some have gone

still further, and use but two, even for out-door planting of the

grape, and some have been very successful when using but a single

joint. The Germans have advocated longer cuttings, upon the theory

that there was a retroaction in the pith of the internodes and in all

the buds of the cutting, upon the lower point, enabling it to push

roots more strongly from a long than from a short cutting. This

theory has for its support the fact, that there is in such a cutting a

larger amount of organizable matter to be developed into the new parts

to be produced, and certainly, if neglected, short cuttings will be

very apt to suffer from drought, but in practice, it is found that the

short cutting plants have better roots, which are near the surface,

and even those plants, grown from single eyes, are better burnished

than long cuttings produced upon the old plan, which placed the roots

deep in the soil.

[Illustration: Fig. 2.--ONE-EYE CUTTINGS OF THE GRAPE.]

There are various methods of preparing the single-eye cuttings, some

of which are represented in fig. 2.

Among our cultivated fruits there is but a limited number that need to

be propagated by cuttings, though, where it becomes necessary, many of

them may be grown in this manner, to which procedure there are no

serious objections, though there are some of a theoretical nature. The

currant and the gooseberry are increased almost exclusively from

cuttings, they strike root very readily, and are multiplied to any

extent; their seeds are sown only to produce new varieties. The grape

is propagated very extensively by cuttings; the slips are often

planted in the field and in the stations where the vines are wanted

for the vineyard; but some varieties are so unsatisfactory in their

results, that other more elaborate and scientific means must be taken

for their propagation. Among the larger fruits, those constituting our

trees, we do not depend upon cuttings, except in the quince, which is

not only grown for its fruit, but is also largely produced as a stock

for the dwarfed pear, and is extensively propagated from cuttings. The

Paradise apple, a dwarf stock, is multiplied in the same way. Pears

and apples may be grown from cuttings, but this plan is not pursued

with them to any extent. Those that are root-grafted, or budded very

low, especially the pear on quince stocks, will often produce roots if

favorably situated, but there is a great difference in varieties, some

rarely produce a root, while others are very prone to do it; from

observations of this fact, a new phase of dwarf-pear culture has been

inaugurated.

SUCKERS.--One of the simplest methods of multiplying varieties

consists of increasing and encouraging the suckers thrown up by the

roots; these are separated and set out for trees. We have been told by

some physiologists that there was an absolute difference in structure

between the root and the stem, that they could not be substituted the

one for the other; and yet the oft quoted marvel of the tree which was

planted upside down, and which produced flowers and leaves from its

roots, while its branches emitted fibres, and became true roots, is

familiar to every one. Here, as in other cases, our teachers have led

us into error by attempting to trace analogy with animal anatomy and

physiology, and by directing our attention to the circulation of

plants, as though they, like the higher animals, possessed true

arterial and venous currents of circulating fluids. The cell

circulation is quite a different affair, and can be conducted in

either direction, as every gardener knows who has ever layered a

plant, or set a cutting upside down. So with the roots--they are but

downward extensions of the stem; under ordinary circumstances they

have no need for buds, but these may be, and often are developed, when

the necessity for their presence arises. Buds do exist on roots,

especially upon those that are horizontal and near the surface, and

from them freely spring suckers, which are as much parts of the parent

tree as its branches, and may be planted with entire certainty of

obtaining the same fruit, just as the twigs when used as cuttings, or

scions, when grafted, will produce similar results.

Whole orchards are planted, in some sections of the country, with the

suckers from old trees; apples, pears, plums, and even peaches, as

well as raspberries and blackberries, are multiplied in this primitive

way. There are some varieties of apples that have been so propagated

for half a century, and extended for hundreds of miles in this way by

the pioneer emigrants, without ever having been grafted, until their

merits have at length accidentally become known to the Pomological

Societies and nurserymen, when the propagation of them by grafting

soon supercedes the more primitive method. Sucker trees are objected

to upon the grounds that they are not healthy and thrifty, that they

do not have good roots. Inherent disease of the parent tree will of

course be transmitted with its other peculiarities, but I cannot

imagine that this would be any more likely to occur in a sucker than

in a layer, or cutting, or graft. As to the roots, they may be more

developed upon one side than another in the young tree, and this state

of things may continue in the adult; we often observe the same

condition in the stumps of the monarchs of our forests, which were

never suspected in the day of their glory and pride of having such a

fault. But such a condition of roots is not essential to the sucker,

which may be made to have as fine a system of lateral roots, and as

evenly and regularly distributed as those of a seedling tree. Another

objection to this mode of propagation has much truth and some force;

that is, that suckers are very apt to produce suckers again. This is

particularly the case with the Morello cherry, which is a favorite

stock, upon which to work many of the choice varieties. As an offset

to this it may be urged, that the small fibrous roots, which are

supposed to conduce to early fruitfulness, abound in trees propagated

by this means, and this may be the reason why the fruit trees that

have been thus multiplied, are very generally remarkable for their

precocious fruiting. Some of the apples that have been long increased

in this manner, bear so early, and so bountifully, as to prevent them

from ever forming very large trees; they often have a stunted

appearance, and not infrequently present a peculiar inequality upon

the bark, portions being swollen or enlarged like warts--from which,

in some cases, it is easy to force out shoots or sprouts; they are

indeed true gemmules like those of the old olive trees, and like them

might be used for the propagation of the variety; a similar condition,

no doubt, exists in the roots, whence the tendency to sucker. The

common Morello cherry; the Damson; the Chickasas, and other varieties

of plum; the blackberry, and many raspberries, are multiplied almost

exclusively in a similar manner.

LAYERS are portions of the branches of a plant that have been induced

to throw out roots, and which can thus set up an independent existence

if removed from the parent tree. This mode of propagation is a very

natural one, and was probably an accidental discovery. In its traits,

it is the reverse of the mode we have just been considering. Here the

branch emits roots, instead of the root emitting branches, as in the

case of the sucker. Layering is frequently resorted to as a mode of

propagation, it is very simple, easily performed, and, with some

species, very certain in its results. Some plants will root readily if

merely placed in contact with the ground, or very slightly covered

with soil; others require some artificial interference, such as

ringing, or twisting, or slitting. The raspberry, known as the _Rubus

occidentalis_ or Black-cap, belongs to the first class, and it even

places itself in contact with the soil by recurving its branches so as

to bring the tips to the earth, where they strike root, and make new

plants. The grape comes under the second category, needing only a

little assistance, and it is multiplied to a considerable extent in

this manner. In the spring, the vines are laid out in a little shallow

trench, and pegged down closely; as the buds burst, they throw up

shoots which are trained vertically by tying them to sticks, and as

soon as these shoots have acquired a certain degree of maturity and

firmness, the mellow earth is drawn up to them and they emit a

beautiful system of roots, and by the fall they form very fine plants,

(fig. 3). The layered branch is then taken up and the several plants

are separated, when it will be found that the best roots are chiefly

from the lower joints of the new wood, rather than from the old canes

that were laid down in the spring.

[Illustration: Fig. 3.--PROPAGATING THE GRAPE BY LAYERING.]

[Illustration: Fig. 4.--LAYERING THE QUINCE.]

[Illustration: Fig. 5.--STOOL LAYERING THE QUINCE.]

Quinces are considerably increased by a sort of layering, as the twigs

emit roots very freely; they are often bent down, slightly twisted, or

not, as the case may be, and covered with mellow soil, when they

readily emit roots, become firmly established, and may be set out by

themselves, (fig. 4). There is, however, another method of layering,

much practiced in the multiplication of the quince; that called

propagation by stools. The plants are set in open rows, four feet

wide, and three or four feet apart in the rows; they should be so

planted as to stand below the general surface, that is in trenches.

When cut off at the ground in the spring, they throw up a great number

of shoots, and the earth is gradually worked up to these to encourage

their rooting, (see figure 5), which is often sufficient for removal

the first season; if, on inspection, the roots are not found to be

sufficiently large or abundant, the earthing is continued until the

autumn of the next year, when they are removed, the stools trimmed of

their lower roots, and reset in new trenches. The plants, thus raised

from stools, are cut back severely, and are then ready to set out in

nursery rows for budding. With the quince, cultivated in this manner,

nothing is required but to accumulate the mellow earth about the

shoots; but in many plants it is necessary to notch the wood by

splitting, or cutting it for an inch or two, (as in fig. 6), making a

tongue that separates from the lower portion of the shoot, and from

which the roots are emitted. This slit should be commenced just below

a bud, and the knife is drawn upward, cutting halfway through the

wood. If commenced at one side instead of at the depending portion,

the tongue is more sure to be separated from the stock, to which it

might otherwise reunite. To insure rooting, some persons insert a

little stick or chip between the separated portions, to prevent a

re-union of the parts. The shoot, after being notched, is fastened

down, and fine soil or compost is brought about it to encourage the

development of roots. Few of the hard wooded fruit trees have been

extensively propagated by means of layers; they might be so produced,

but it has not been found profitable nor necessary.

[Illustration: Fig. 6.--MANNER OF CUTTING AND PEGGING DOWN A

LAYER.]

A very common opinion prevails that layering exhausts the mother

plant, or vine, which is used in this mode of propagating. If properly

conducted, there is no reason why this should be; but if the whole top

of any plant is bent down and made to take root, and to form

independent roots, there can be little or no return from the branches

to the original stock to strengthen it. A certain amount of healthy

growing wood should always be left in its natural position, and no

danger to the plant need be apprehended.

The wood growth of the strawberry, when allowed to take its natural

bent, is directed into the stolons or runners, which form natural

layers. Their production detracts from the central wood-growth of the

plant, and exhausts its strength to such a degree, that it often dies,

whereas, by a constant removal of the runners, as fast as they appear,

we practice a sort of summer pruning or pinching, which results in the

production of a large branching stool, with many points or centers for

the production of foliage and flowers, and thus insure the greatest

abundance of fruit. The strawberry, like one species of the raspberry,

and many other of our native plants, offers illustrations of natural

layering.

SEEDS.--The most common as well as the most natural mode of

multiplying the individual plants of most of our fruit trees, is by

sowing the seed; from this source we procure stocks upon which are

worked, by budding or grafting, the several varieties we may desire to

propagate. As an illustration of this process, I propose to speak of

apple seedlings.

The almost universal means of increasing the number of apple trees, is

by sowing the seed. This is generally selected and separated from the

fresh pomace left on the press in cider-making. The old and slow

process of hand-washing has given way, in this age of labor-saving

machinery, to more economical methods. The most approved apparatus is

constructed upon the principle of separating the seeds from the pulp

by means of their greater specific gravity; it is, indeed, much like a

gold washer, being a series of boxes or troughs through which a

current of water is made to flow; this carries the lighter portions

away from the seeds, the contents of the boxes being agitated from

time to time. At the close of the process, the clean seed is found in

the bottoms of the boxes, whence it is removed and carefully dried, by

putting it in an airy place, and stirring it frequently to prevent

mildew and fermentation. Well prepared seed is plump and bright, and

should feel cold to the hand. When the pips are broken, they should be

white and clear within; but the best test of their quality, is to

sprout a portion, and count the plants produced by a given number of

seeds.

SOWING.--The seeds may be put into the ground, either in the fall, or

spring. The soil having been well prepared, and deeply pulverized, is

thrown up in beds a few feet wide, and the seed sown in close drills

across; or without the beds, it may be sown in broad drills, by hand,

or with a machine, the rows at such a distance as to allow of culture

by horse-power. It is desirable, in either case, to get an early start

and a good stand; the weeds must be kept under from the very first,

and not allowed to have the mastery for a single day. Thorough culture

during the season, upon a deeply tilled soil, of such a character as

to retain moisture, will be found highly advantageous in the

production of this crop, and will insure immunity from leaf-blight and

other adversities. Some recommend sprouting the seed a little before

planting. If it have been kept during the winter mixed with its bulk

of sand, which is a good plan, the whole may be subjected to a gentle

heat as in a hot-bed, for a few days, just before planting. During

this time the mass must be stirred and turned every day, to prevent

fermentation and to secure an even start. Whenever the germ makes its

appearance at the points of the seeds, which is called _pipping_, the

sowing must begin, and should be done as quickly as possible; the

covering is to be slight, and the earth should be friable and not

disposed to bake. The depth at which the apple seed is to be covered

will depend upon the present and prospective state of the weather,

lighter if moist, heavier if dry, for a continued drouth might be

fatal to sprouted seed, if it were planted too near the surface; but

when the weather is not dry, it is advised that the shallower the seed

is sown, the better. The objection has been made to sprouting, that if

the process have advanced too far, the seedlings will be apt to have a

crook at or near the collar, instead of the straight fusiform

appearance they should possess when presented to the grafter.

These seedlings furnish the stocks upon which to work the finer

varieties of the apple. They are taken up in the autumn with their

long clean roots, which are often longer than their tops, the leaves

are stripped off, and they are assorted; the larger are packed away in

earth or saw-dust in the grafting department, or heeled-in out of

doors, and covered in such a way as to be accessible at any time they

may be needed during the winter. The smaller stocks are heeled-in for

spring planting in nursery rows for budding, or they may be left in

the original rows for another year's growth as seedlings. If the

plants have been well grown and not too thick, so that the majority

are of sufficient size, it will be better to take them all up at once

and assort them as just indicated, otherwise the largest only may be

drawn separately when the ground is soft with autumnal rains, leaving

the smaller seedlings for another year's growth. In assorting and

selling the stocks, nurserymen make about three classes. The very

largest, as thick as a lead-pencil, are called extra, or two-year

old, and command a higher price. The next size, called 1st class

stocks, are large enough for co-aptation to the average scions, and

long enough to make two cuts each for grafting; and those that fall

below this requisition are considered second class, and are either

thrown aside or set out for budding, and for stock or collar-grafting

in the rows.

PROPAGATION.--SECTION II.--GRAFTING.

A MODIFICATION OF CUTTINGS. SUCCESS DEPENDANT UPON CELL-GROWTH.

FORMING A UNION WITH THE STOCK. LIMITS TO GRAFTING DEPENDANT

UPON THE ANATOMY OF THE PLANT. PHYSIOLOGICAL BOUNDS. SUCCESS

IS IN PROPORTION TO THE AFFINITY. SEVERAL SPECIES AS STOCKS.

DISTINCT GENERA. NARROW LIMITS. REQUISITES. EFFECTS OF

UNCONGENIAL STOCKS. NATURAL GRAFTING IS INARCHING. GRAFTING BY

APPROACH. VARIOUS METHODS OF GRAFTING. WHIP, CLEFT, SADDLE,

SIDE, ETC. ILLUSTRATIONS. TYING, WAXING, ETC. RE-GRAFTING OLD

ORCHARDS. RENEW SUCCESSIVE PORTIONS OF THE TREE; TOP FIRST.

GRAFTING MACHINES. ROOT-GRAFTING. PREPARATION OF THE SCIONS. OF

THE ROOTS. PRESERVATION OF THE GRAFTS. DIVISION OF LABOR.

DIFFERENT PORTIONS OR SECTIONS OF THE ROOTS. STOCK-GRAFTING.

GRAFTING-WAX. SEASONS FOR. PROLONGED. SELECTION OF SCIONS. TIME

FOR CUTTING. MODE OF PRESERVING. TREATMENT OF GRAFTS.

Grafting is but a modification of propagation by cuttings. The scion

is a cutting of the variety we wish to propagate, which, instead of

being committed to the ground to emit its own roots, is placed in

contact with tissues of a nature similar to its own, through which it

is to form a connection with the roots and the soil. The success of

the operation depends upon the formative cell in this instance also,

as in the cutting; new cells are formed upon the cut surface, and the

intercommunication takes place through them. Hence we have anatomical

limits to grafting; there are physiological bounds beyond which we

cannot pass, in our combinations of scion and stock. Our success is in

the direct ratio of the affinity that exists between them; thus apple

grows best on apple, and even among these we find the _closest union_

and the best results, where there is a similarity between the style of

growth, and probably in the character of the cells.

We say, as a general rule, that stone fruits must be grafted upon

stone fruits, those bearing seeds, upon seed fruit; but there are

limits even here which confine us upon one hand, and give us more

latitude upon the other. Thus the cherry may be worked upon the wild

cherry (_Prunus Virginiana_) but it forms a very poor union; the pear

will grow upon the thorn, which has a very different seed, but the

union is very imperfect and the tree is short-lived; the apple would

appear to be much nearer of kin, since it belongs to the same genus,

but though the pear will grow vigorously upon this stock, it is no

more permanent than upon the thorn: either of them will answer when

grafted low, or in the root, to start the cutting, as the scion may

then be considered, and to sustain it until it shall have supplied

itself with roots. In top-grafting the pear upon a tree of either

species, it is found essential to success, and it conduces to the

greater durability of the tree, for some branches of the original

stock to be left intact to secure the circulation of the trunk, as the

union of the dissimilar cells is so imperfect that it does not furnish

sufficient vent for the sap. In the case of the cherry we find that

the varieties appear to have a greater affinity for those of their

own race; thus the Dukes and Morellos do well when grafted upon the

Morello stocks, whereas the Hearts and Bigarreau sorts do not make a

good union upon these stocks, but prefer the Mazzard, which has a

freer growth more like their own. Most varieties will do well upon the

Mahaleb stock, which is used as a means of dwarfing this fruit, though

not a dwarf. Upon the wild cherry, which belongs to quite a different

section of the genus, the cultivated varieties will grow, but they

form a very imperfect union.

The peach may be worked upon the plum stock, and is claimed to be

somewhat dwarfed by it, and to produce superior fruit. This stock is

more congenial to the apricot, which is frequently propagated upon it.

Both plums and apricots may be worked upon the peach stock, and they

will grow very vigorously, as they will upon the wild plum, but they

soon over-grow, and are very apt to break off. When either of these

species is used as a stock for the plum or apricot, they should be

considered merely as a nursing mother, like the apple or thorn to the

pear, which may be wanted to help the cutting until it shall be

prepared to stand alone, and feed itself from its own roots. In other

words, they should be grafted, _not budded_, into these uncongenial

stocks, and the operation should be performed in the collar or below

it, in the root, so that the growing scion may be earthed up, and

encouraged to furnish itself with a good system of roots of its own.

The success will then depend upon the ability of the scion to emit

roots freely.

We must never forget that in grafting, we are confined to very narrow

limits. Our scion must be of a similar nature with the stock, each

must have cells of a similar character, capable of transmitting their

nutritious fluids from one to the other. We must recollect likewise,

that the parts must be so co-apted that the cells of wood growth shall

be brought into as close connection as possible, in both scion and

stock; these cells are found in the layer, called the cambium, which

is between the wood and the bark. The crude sap from below will often

pass from cell to cell, when the elaborated sap of the cells in the

scion is wholly unfitted for the formation of wood cells in the stock

below it; of course the union in such a case must be very imperfect,

and the product of such a grafting will be subject to accident, and

will be short-lived, though the result in fruit, while the union

continues, may be very precocious, abundant, and of superior flavor.

Natural grafting may often be observed by the student of nature when

wandering among his favorites of the sylvan shades. There can be no

doubt that the first hint was thus communicated to the early

gardeners. In nature we always find the grafting to be inarching, or

grafting by approach; two limbs or even two trees approximating

closely, have abraded one another, and have afterward united their

tissues most firmly together. This is generally a union of two trees

of the same variety or species; but such is not always the case;

sometimes trees of very dissimilar natures unite in this manner, but

when we examine them we find only a dove-tailing, only a mechanical

union, but no vital action subsists between them. The ancients give us

some fancy sketches of the unions by grafting of very dissimilar

trees, and some moderns who have no higher claim to poetry than their

romancing, tell us that we may graft the peach upon the Willow and

Buttonwood, and form other equally impossible unions.

The different methods of performing the operation of grafting vary

with the character and size, and condition of the stocks to be worked;

thus we have splice grafting, whip, cleft, saddle, and side grafting

with modifications, and also grafting by approach, which is generally

called inarching--though sometimes also practiced where we desire to

renew the roots of a tree that are unhealthy, or to restore those that

have been removed by accident or by the erosion of some rodent

animals.

[Illustration: Fig. 7.]

SPLICE GRAFTING is the simplest process, and is applicable only where

the size of the stock and of the scion correspond pretty nearly; the

two are cut with a sloping curve, each of which being made at the same

angle, will coincide with the other when they are applied together, as

represented in the engraving, fig. 7.

[Illustration: Fig. 8.--WHIP GRAFTING.]

WHIP GRAFTING is a modification of the above. Each portion is cut in a

sloping manner as in the splice grafting, but each is also split with

a thin-bladed knife, as represented in fig. 8. The object in this is

to give a firmer union to the two portions, and also to present a more

extended surface for the effusion of the new cell tissue that is to

form the bond of union in cementing them together. In both these

methods, but especially in the first, the parts must be held together

in co-aptation by some kind of bandage; this is generally composed of

grafting wax, spread upon cloth or paper, or even, as now extensively

practiced, upon fine thread. Cotton yarn _No_. 3 is drawn through

melted grafting wax, and as it cools, it is wound upon a reel at the

other side of the room, whence it is drawn as wanted by the grafter or

tyer. Tying or wrapping is always a good precaution, and when the

splice or cleft graft is not very close, it becomes necessary; but

thousands of grafts will unite equally well where the parts are

covered with earth, without any such appliance.

[Illustration: Fig. 9.--DIFFERENT STEPS IN CLEFT GRAFTING. _A_,

SCION PREPARED FOR SETTING. _B_, THE CLEFT OPENED BY A WEDGE.

_C_, THE SCION INSERTED. _D_, SECTION OF STOCK AND SCION TO SHOW

THE CO-APTATION OF THE PARTS OF THE TWO.]

[Illustration: Fig. 10.--CLEFT GRAFTING WITH BOTH SCIONS

INCLINED INWARD.]

CLEFT GRAFTING is generally done when the stock is larger than the

scion, and also where the operation is performed at a point above the

ground. The stock is split downward, after having been cut off at the

point where the grafting is to be done. The knife should be sharp, and

the bark should be cut through first, to avoid its being torn, and so

that the sides of the cleft shall be smooth. A wedge is inserted to

keep the cleft open for the insertion of the scion, which is cut on

each side like a fine wedge; but the two planes not being parallel,

the bark will be left on one side to the very point of the wedge,

while on the other it will be removed a part of the way, making a

feather edge, _A_, fig. 9. The object of this is to have the pressure

of the cleft greatest upon the outer side, where the union is to be

effected. It is well to have a bud on the strip of bark left between

the two cuts used in forming the graft, this should be near the top of

the cleft. One or two grafts may be inserted into a cleft, or more

clefts may be made, in large stocks, or in re-grafting the large limbs

of an old tree, but usually one is sufficient to leave growing; and in

the young tree, only one should ever be allowed to remain. When the

scion is nicely set into the cleft, so that the inner bark of the

stock and graft shall coincide, or rather cross a very little, (see

fig. 10,) the wedge, whether of hard wood, or of iron, should be

gently withdrawn, and then the elasticity of the stock will hold the

scion firmly to its place; this pressure should not be too severe. In

this kind of grafting, if the pressure be sufficiently firm, and if

the operation have been performed below the surface of the ground, it

may not be necessary to make any other application than to press the

moist earth about the parts, and cover all but the top of the graft

with soil, and place a stick to indicate the plant and protect it from

injury. If, on the contrary, the pressure of the cleft be not

sufficient to hold the scion firmly, as in small stocks, the graft

must be tied. For this a piece of bass matting, or cotton twine, may

be used; and if the operation has been performed above ground, the

whole must be covered with grafting wax, applied, either hot with a

brush, or cold, after having been worked with the hands, or by

wrapping with strips of muslin or paper previously spread with the

wax. In old times grafting clay was used, and applied with the hands

as a lump around the junction; but this disagreeable and clumsy

appliance has given way to more elegant and convenient arrangements.

[Illustration: Fig. 11--SIDE GRAFTING.]

[Illustration: Fig. 12--SIDE GRAFTING--THE STOCK NOT CUT BACK.]

[Illustration: Fig. 13.--TWO FORMS OF SIDE GRAFTING.--_A_, _B_,

THE SCION AND STOCK FOR THE RICHARD SIDE GRAFT. _C_, STOCK FOR

THE GIRARDIN SIDE GRAFT. _D_, SCION, AND _E_, FRUIT BUD FOR THE

SAME.]

SIDE GRAFTING is performed in two ways. In one it is a modification of

cleft grafting in which there is no cleft, but the bark is started

from the wood, and the scion, cut as shown in figure 11, is pressed

down between the wood and bark. This can only be done late in the

spring, after the sap has begun to flow in the stock, so that the bark

will run; it is indeed more like budding than grafting. The other

modification is done without cutting off the stock. The knife is

applied to the side of a stock of medium size, and a cut is made

downward and extending to one-third the diameter, fig. 12; the scion

is cut as for cleft grafting, and inserted so as to have the parts

well co-apted, and then secured as usual. This plan is useful where

there is danger of too free a flow of sap from the roots. Two other

kinds of side graft are shown in fig. 13. The left-hand figures show

the Richard side graft, in which an arched branch, _A_, is used. This

is inserted under the bark of the stock, _B_; above the graft an

incision is made in the stock down to the wood, to arrest the flow of

sap. After the insertion, the wound is covered with grafting wax. The

Girardin side graft is illustrated at the three right-hand figures. A

fruit bud, _E_, or a graft with a terminal fruit bud, _D_, is inserted

under the bark of the stock, _C_, in August, or whenever suitable buds

can be obtained and the bark will run. The wound is tied and covered

with wax, as before. The object of this grafting is to secure

immediate fruitage. Another kind of side grafting consists in plunging

a dirk-shaped knife directly through the tree, inclining the point

downward, into this opening the graft is inserted; the object being to

establish a limb on a naked portion of the trunk.

[Illustration: Fig. 14.--SADDLE GRAFTING.]

SADDLE GRAFTING is used only with stocks of small size; it is

performed by making a double slope upon the stock, and by opening a

corresponding space in the graft, by cutting two slopes in the scion,

from below upwards, so that they shall meet in the centre, as seen in

_fig._ 14. Some merely split the scion.

GRAFTING BY APPROACH, or as it is generally termed, _inarching_, is

often practiced where there is difficulty in making the scion unite

with the stock; it is not often needed in the culture of our orchard

fruits, but may be here described. The stock upon which we wish to

graft the scion, must be planted near the variety or species to be

increased. A small twig of the latter, which can be brought close to

the stock, is selected for the operation; a slice of bark and wood is

then removed from the twig, and another of equal size from the stock,

so managed, that these cut surfaces can be brought together and

secured in that position until they have united, after which the twig,

that has been used as a scion, is cut from its parent tree, and the

top of the stock is carefully reduced until the scion has sufficiently

developed itself to act as the top of the ingrafted tree, which may

afterward be transplanted to its proper station.

A modification of this grafting by approach, is, however, sometimes of

great service, where we have a valuable tree that has suffered from

disease in the roots, or from injury to them. It consists in planting

some thrifty young stocks, with good roots, about the base of the

tree, after having prepared the ground by thorough digging, and by the

addition of good soil if necessary. These stocks are then inserted

upwards into the healthy portion of the trunk, by the process of side

grafting reversed or inverted, or by the usual method of inarching.

RING GRAFTING OR BARK GRAFTING is not much used, and in small stocks

it is rather a kind of budding, for then a ring of bark is removed at

the proper season of year, generally about midsummer, and it is

replaced by a similar ring of bark from a shoot of the same size,

taken from a tree of the variety to be propagated; this ring of bark

must be furnished with a healthy bud. This method has little to

recommend it, and can only be applied when both the stock and the

scion are in a growing condition, so that the bark will run freely;

care also must be exercised to avoid injuring the eye of the bud, in

peeling off the ring. A modification of bark grafting may be applied

with great advantage, however, to an old tree, that has met with an

injury to a portion of its bark. The injured part should be pared

smoothly to the sound bark and wood. This may be done with a sloping

cut, or the edge may be made abrupt and square with a chisel and

mallet; a piece of fresh wood and bark is then to be cut from a

healthy tree and fitted precisely to the fresh wound, and secured in

its place with bandages, and grafting clay or wax is then applied,

thus making what the surgeons would call a sort of taliacotian

operation. Instead of a single piece of wood and bark, a number of

young shoots may be used to make the communication complete; these are

set close together and secured in the usual manner; see fig. 15.

[Illustration: Fig. 15.--BARK GRAFTING, TO REPAIR AN INJURED

TREE.]

RE-GRAFTING OLD ORCHARDS.--Old orchards of inferior fruit may be

entirely re-made and re-formed by grafting the limbs with such

varieties as we may desire. A new life is by this process often

infused into the trees, which is due to the very severe pruning which

the trees then receive; they are consequently soon covered with a

vigorous growth of young healthy wood, which replaces the decrepid and

often decaying spray that accumulates in an old orchard, and the fruit

produced for several years by the new growth is not only more

valuable in kind, according to the judgment used in the selection of

grafts, but it is more fair, smooth and healthy, and of better size

than that which was previously furnished by the trees. Certain

varieties are brought at once into bearing when thus top-grafted,

which would have been long in developing their fruitful condition if

planted as nursery trees. Others are always better and finer when so

worked, than on young trees. Some of the finest specimens of the

Northern Spy apple, exhibited at the fairs, have been produced by

grafts inserted into the terminal branches of old bearing trees. There

is a theory held by some orchardists, that the further the junction of

the graft with the stock is removed from the root, the better will be

the fruit. This, however, is not well supported, and the circumstance,

when observed, is probably dependent upon other causes.

In renewing an old orchard by grafting its head, it will not be a good

plan to attempt the whole tree at once; the pruning would be too

severe, and would be followed by a profusion of succulent shoots

breaking out from the large branches, such as are called

water-sprouts. Those who have practiced most, prefer at first, to

remove about one-third of the limbs for grafting, and those should be

selected at the top of the tree. The new growth thus has an open field

for its development, and the lower limbs will be invigorated, while

they tend also to preserve the equilibrium of the tree in a double

sense, physically and physiologically. The next year another third of

the limbs may be grafted, and the remainder the year following, as

practiced by Mr. Geo. Olmstead, of Connecticut, who, on the sixth

year from the first grafting, harvested 28-½ bushels of choice apples

from a single tree that was 75 years old, and which before only

produced inferior fruit. J.J. Thomas recommends, "to give a

well-shaped head to such newly formed trees, and to prevent the

branches from shooting upward in a close body near the centre of the

tree; that the old horizontal boughs should be allowed to extend to a

distance in each direction, while the upright ones should be lopped;"

see fig. 16. The same writer also advises, "instead of cutting off

large branches and grafting them at once, it is better to prune the

top in part, which will cause an emission of vigorous shoots. These

are then budded, or grafted. * * * And as the grafts gradually extend

by growth, the remainder of the top may, by successive excisions, be

entirely removed."

[Illustration: Fig. 16.--RENEWAL OF THE TOP OF AN OLD TREE.]

GRAFTING IN THE NURSERY is either done at or near the collar of the

stock, or it is performed in-doors upon the roots or sections of

roots of young stocks. The latter may be first described, as it

constitutes the most extensive means of multiplying fruit trees. It is

a sort of machinery, with division of labor, and appliances, that

enable the operators to turn out immense numbers. Machinery has indeed

been applied to the business; we have grafting apparatus to facilitate

the work. The Minkler machine consists of a frame or gauge which

regulates the angle of the slope, which is cut with a broad chisel

that reduces the roots and scions to a condition for putting them

together; by its use an immense number of grafts can be cut, and

another hand binds them together with the waxed thread, without any

tie. Mr. Robey's machine consists of a complicated shears to cut the

slope and tongue at one operation, preparing the pieces for whip

grafting. Mr. S.S. Jackson, of Cincinnati, has also invented an

apparatus for this purpose, which proves to be very useful.

ROOT GRAFTING.--The methods of performing the operation vary somewhat,

but all agree in the object to be attained: the co-aptation of the

scion with a piece of root. Some grafters use only the upper portion

of the root, thinking the original collar of the seedling stock the

only point at which the most perfect and successful union between the

aërial and terrestrial portions of trees should or can be

effected--theoretically this may be very well, but the practice

constantly pursued, in myriads of cases, abundantly proves that the

grafting need not be restricted to this part, and that a perfect union

may be effected at any point of the root, and that this may even be

inverted. The very common practice has been to take two or more cuts

from the root, when it is of sufficient size and length; and though

some of our best propagators restrict themselves to two cuts from

each, others, who have experimented carefully, insist that the third

section will average as well as the others. A lot of trees, worked

especially for a test in this matter, gave the following results.

In 1859 an average lot of roots and scions, about fifty in each lot,

were treated as follows, White Pippin and Willow-leaf being used as

scions:--

White Pippin--No. 1, being on the first cut of the root, had made a

fair growth.

No. 2, being on the second cut, were quite as good or better.

No. 3, being on the third cut, were not quite so good as the others,

the ground being partially shaded by a large tree.

Another, of Willow-leaf--No. 1, on the 3d cut of root, very good

growth.

No. 2, on very slender roots, nearly as good.

No. 3, only 1 inch of root to 1 inch of scion; not so good growth nor

so good a strike, but shaded by a tree.

No. 4, on 2d cut of root, not so good as the third.

No. 5, on average lot, not waxed, as good as any.

No. 6, roots worked upside-down, mostly failed.

D.O. Reeder exhibited some 2-year old apple trees, worked on the root

inverted, they were of very good growth.

For root grafting, thrifty stocks are wanted of one or two years'

growth, the smoother and straighter the roots, the better. These

should be taken up from the seed-bed in the fall, selected, tied in

bundles, and stored in the cellar or cave, or buried in the soil where

they shall be accessible at any time, and where they will be kept

fresh and plump. The roots and scions having been prepared and under

shelter, the work of grafting may proceed at any time during the

winter. The stocks, if not clean, should be washed, and one hand trims

off the side rootlets. The grafter cuts a hundred scions of the

appropriate length, which he puts into a shallow box on the table; he

takes up a stock, cuts the slope near the collar, and a dextrous hand

will at the same time make the sloping cut to receive the first graft

and also the tongue, if that style of grafting is to be done, as is

usually practised. He then picks up a scion, from a lot which himself

or another hand has already prepared with a slope and tongue, and

adapts it to the root, the tongue keeping the two together; a portion

of the root is then cut off with the graft, and the process is

repeated upon the next section. Two or three or more grafts, are thus

made from one seedling root; the length of the sections vary from two

to four inches, according to the fancy of the operator, or of his

employer. Some persons recommend a long scion with a short root, and

others prefer to reverse those terms. The whole root graft should not

be more than six or seven inches long.

When any given number of scions are fitted to the roots, a boy

completes the process of grafting, by applying melted wax with a

brush, in which case they are dropped into water to harden the wax, or

they are wrapped with waxed strips of muslin or paper, or, better

still, they are tied with waxed thread. No. 3 cotton yarn is drawn

through a pan of melted wax, and wound upon a reel placed at the other

side of the room, so that the wax may harden. This waxed thread is a

very convenient tie; the graft being held in the left hand, the thread

is wound about it two or three turns; as the wax causes the bandage

to adhere to itself where it crosses, no knot is needed, and the

thread is broken off with a quick jerk.

In splice grafting, whether performed with any of the machines, or if

the slopes of root and scion be cut with the thin grafting knife, the

tying must be done by the same hand that selects and places the scion

upon the root. This does not admit of the same division of labor, and

the fingers, becoming sticky from the wax, cannot be so nimble, and

are unfit for cutting. When the lot is tied, they are set into the

box, which should be inclined at an angle, and interspersed with earth

or saw-dust; for transportation. Saw-dust, just as it comes from the

mill, neither wet nor dry, is preferred by some as a packing material,

and it has been found very efficacious, excluding and admitting the

air just in the right proportions to prevent desiccation, and to

promote the union, which very soon takes place between the graft and

the root, if the boxes be stored in the cellar. In an ice-house root

grafts have been kept in saw-dust more than a year, and then planted

and grown successfully. The boxes should be deep enough to receive the

whole graft--say from 10 to 12 inches--and then they can be packed

upon one another without injuring the scions; these should be

distinctly marked with the name and number, so as to be ready for

planting out in the spring.

Much discussion has been had upon the merits and demerits, or

disadvantages of root grafting, and much theoretical argument has been

brought against the practice; but beautiful trees are thus made in

immense numbers in the extensive nurseries of our country, and until

better arguments can be produced against the practice, nurserymen

will continue to graft on sections of root, such varieties, as are

suitable for this procedure--especially apples, in a large proportion

of the varieties cultivated, some pears, some peaches, grapes, and

other fruits.

Root grafting is now of almost universal application with the apple.

It has many advantages, which may be summed up as follows: Two or more

plants may be produced from the root of one stock; these may be made

with great rapidity; the work may all be performed in-doors and during

the whole winter season, when nothing can be done outside; they are of

small bulk, and great numbers may be stowed away in little space, they

may be transported to any distance in this condition, and are ready

for planting with the opening of spring, when they may be set in the

nursery rows at once; or, they may be bedded out in a small space and

mulched, to protect them from drouth, and the weeds can easily be kept

under. Another advantage of bedding out the root-grafts is, that they

may be assorted according to their size the next season, when

transplanted into the nursery rows. This very transplanting too is a

great advantage, for the roots will be much improved by the process.

The theoretical objections to root grafts have yielded to sound

philosophy, based on and supported by practical observation. The very

many advantages of this more economical and convenient and agreeable

process, will necessarily sustain root-grafting in this fast age, when

so many millions of trees are needed for the rapidly extending wants

of this nation of tree planters. We may, however, consider some of the

practical objections which have been brought forward against this

plan of multiplying the apple. In our very changeable climate, and

particularly in the North-west, upon the prairies, the cold of winter

often supervenes with great suddenness, after the young trees have

made a prolonged and vigorous growth in the fertile soil, and produces

terrible devastation among those that are there exposed, without

protection of any kind, to the rude blasts of the storm-king: in a

less degree, injury is very frequent with many such late-growing

kinds, at the first access of a severe frost; this is manifested in

the bursting of the bark near the base of the stem. The same thing is

not so often seen in the same varieties, when they have been budded or

stock grafted a foot or more from the ground upon hardy seedling

stocks, hence judicious propagators have selected the "tender"

varieties for this kind of working, and confine their root-grafting to

those less liable to the injury. There are other varieties which do

not readily and promptly form a strong upright growth, so as to be

profitable trees to the nurseryman if root grafted; these are selected

for stock working, either on strong seedlings, or upon hardy upright

sorts that have been root grafted for the purpose of being thus

double-worked. This plan has been pursued to a limited extent only,

but its advantages in the production of good trees of the slender

growing varieties, begin to be appreciated, and as the demand

increases, our intelligent nurserymen will very soon furnish the

requisite supply.

_Planting._--When the weather is fine, and the soil in good condition,

the root-grafts are to be set out with a dibble, by the line; they

should be planted rather deeply, one bud projecting above the surface

of the ground. The culture must be thorough, the plants should be

kept perfectly clean, but it is questionable whether the growth should

be pushed, late in the season; indeed, it is preferable to check the

vegetation at mid-summer. For this purpose it has been recommended to

cease cultivating the soil, or even to sow the ground with a heavy

seeding of oats, so as to check the growth before winter. In good

soils, with good culture, the average hight in the rows will be two

feet, but there is a great difference in the kinds; some will

considerably exceed this hight. Intelligent nurserymen no longer

endeavor to have an excessive growth in the first year, and many

prefer the bedding plan above alluded to.

_Trimming, Pinching, or Heading._--The growth during the first year is

generally a single shoot, sometimes two. If there be a second, it

should be subordinated by pinching off its extremity, never by

trimming it off; indeed, laterals should always be encouraged, and

this will be more and more the case, since the demand for low-headed

trees is increasing, as the laws of physiology are better understood.

A young tree, well furnished with laterals, is always more stocky, and

every way better, though not so tall as that which has been drawn up

to a single stem. To encourage this condition, some advise the

pinching out the terminal bud in the midst of the growing season,

which will cause the swelling and subsequent breaking of the lower

buds, so as to furnish plenty of laterals. If done later in the

season, especially with strong-growing varieties, a branching head may

be formed higher up, during the first season, making very pretty

trees. This is, however, seldom attempted with root-grafts the first

season, though it is very common for collar-grafted trees, and for

buds on strong stocks to make a fine branching growth the first year.

The second season the trees should all be headed-in, and the laterals

spurred-in early in the spring, or in mild weather during the winter,

if the scions are wanted. This method of making stocky plants cannot

be too highly commended, nor can the opposite plan, of trimming off

all the side branches, and even of stripping the leaves from the lower

part of the shoots, during the first summer, be too severely

condemned.

STOCK GRAFTING has many advocates, and for some varieties this plan is

preferable. The union may be effected at any point from the collar

upward. Formerly, the place was selected to suit the convenience of

the grafter, and many old orchards show very plainly where they were

worked, the stock or the scion having overgrown, and it is very

curious that some varieties may be indicated as good feeders of the

stock below them, and the contrary. At present, tree planters are more

fastidious, and object to these irregularities in the stems of their

trees. They will purchase nothing that shows the point of union above

ground, hence the more common use of collar grafting, as it has been

called, or the insertion of the scion at or near the surface of the

ground. Stocks that have been cultivated one or two years in the

nursery row, are selected for this purpose; the earth is removed from

them, they are cut off and grafted as they stand, and with their fine

strong roots undisturbed, the result of one summer's growth is very

satisfactory, making beautiful trees fit for the orchard. Older trees,

especially those with straight clean stems, are often grafted standard

high, so as to produce a fine salable tree at once, or in one season.

This is a very good plan with some of the slender and straggling

varieties, such as are called poor growers, and which are unprofitable

to the nurseryman when propagated in the usual manner. Grafting or

budding upon such stocks is also resorted to very often, when it is

desirable at once to furnish large, or salable trees of new varieties.

In grafting upon a large stock, or upon the tops of an old tree, the

process called cleft grafting is generally used. Here, as in all forms

of this process, the object to be attained, is the co-aptation of the

inner bark of both stock and scion. The latter is held in its place by

the clasping of the former, and is also covered by some material that

is pliant, and which will exclude the air and moisture.

The advantages of stock-grafting are the changing of an old tree from

bad to good fruit, which is produced in a few years; it is also

applicable to large stocks, and produces an immediate result, making

salable trees in one year. It is also desirable for some poor-growing

varieties, which are slow in making a tree from the ground; but it has

its disadvantages also. The nurseryman must wait until his stocks have

been grown one or more years in the nursery, his trees will sometimes

be larger than he desires, they will be apt to have the mark of the

grafting as a blemish upon the stalk sometimes during the life of the

tree; and worse than all, he is restricted to a brief period in the

spring, when he is obliged to perform the operation out of doors, and

often in very unpleasant weather.

As a result of all the discussions upon this subject, it is found that

stock-grafting, whether at the collar or at some distance above the

ground, is still practiced, and has many warm advocates, as a better

means of making the best trees. The only objections are the greater

expense of culture of the stocks, and greater labor in grafting; the

limited period at which the work can be performed, and the exposure of

the workman during its performance, which is often at a stormy season,

and always during a busy portion of the year. The trees too, in the

orchard, are often somewhat deformed by an irregularity of growth, and

have an enlargement either above or below the union, which is

unsightly.

The kind of grafting will depend upon the size of the stocks; splice

and whip-grafting on the smaller, and cleft-grafting on the larger

ones, must be practiced. The waxing may be done by any of the methods

indicated, according to the fancy; but it must always be more

thoroughly done in aerial, than in underground grafting, whether this

be in the collar or upon sections of the root; in the former the whole

of the cut surfaces must be covered, to prevent desiccation by the

winds, or the inroads of insects, or of wet from rains.

WAX.--Various combinations of the materials used in the preparation of

grafting-wax, have been recommended by different operators. The

desideratum being to have a material that shall be sufficiently

pliant, and at the same time firm enough to withstand the elevated

temperatures to which it may be exposed. A mean is preferred, neither

too hard nor too soft, and the proportions of the ingredients are

varied according as it is proposed to use it out of doors, or in the

house, in cold weather or warm.

A favorite recipe, with a practical nurseryman of great experience,

is:

Rosin, six parts, }

Bees-wax, one part, } melted together.

Tallow, one part, }

This is to be used warm, when grafting in the house.

For out-door work he used the following:

Rosin, four or five parts.

Bees-wax, one and one-half to two parts.

Linseed oil, one to one and one-half.

This is made into a mass to be applied by hand. A very pleasant and

neat mode of using the wax is to pour it when melted, upon thin muslin

or strong paper, and spread it thin with a spatula. The tissue is then

cut into strips of convenient size. The application to cotton yarn for

root-grafting, has already been mentioned.

The French use the preparation given below, sufficiently warm to be

liquid, but not so hot as to injure the tissues of the tree, and apply

it with a brush:

Black pitch 28 parts.

Burgundy pitch 28 parts.

Bees-wax 16 parts.

Grease 14 parts.

Yellow ochre 14 parts.

------------

Making 100 parts.[14]

Mr. Du Breuil also refers to Leport's liquid mastic in terms of

commendation, but speaks of it as a secret composition.

Downing recommends melting together:

Bees-wax 3 parts.

Rosin 3 parts.

Tallow 2 parts.

He says, the common wax of the French is

Pitch one-half pound.

Bees-wax one-half pound.

Cow-dung one pound.

To be boiled together, and laid on with a brush, and for using cold or

on strips of muslin, equal parts of tallow, bees-wax, and rosin, some

preferring a little more tallow.

J.J. Thomas, whose practical knowledge is proverbial, recommends for

its cheapness

Linseed oil one pint.

Rosin six pounds.

Bees-wax one pound.

Melted together, to be applied warm with a brush, or to be put on

paper or muslin, or worked with wet hands into a mass and drawn out

into ribbons.

The season for grafting is quite a prolonged one, if we include the

period during which it may be done in the house, and the ability we

have of retarding the scions by cold, using ice. It should be done

while the grafts are dormant, which is at any time from the fall of

the leaf until the swelling of the buds. As the grafts would be likely

to suffer from prolonged exposure, out-door grafting is done just

before vegetation commences in the spring, but may be prolonged until

the stocks are in full leaf, by keeping back the scions, in which

case, however, there is more danger to the stock unless a portion of

its foliage is allowed to remain to keep up the circulation; under

these circumstances, too, side-grafting is sometimes used with the

same view.

The stone fruits are worked first; cherries, plums, and peaches, then

pears and apples. With regard to grafting grapes, there is a

diversity of opinion. Some operators prefer very early in the season,

as in February, and others wait until the leaves have appeared upon

the vine to be grafted.

SCIONS OR GRAFTS are to be selected from healthy plants of the variety

we wish to propagate. They should be the growth of the previous year,

of average size, well developed, and with good buds, those having

flower buds are rejected. If the shoots be too strong, they are often

furnished with poor buds, and are more pithy, and therefore they are

more difficult to work and are less likely to grow. Grafts, cut from

young bearing orchards, are the best, and being cut from fruiting

trees, this enables us to be certain as to correctness of the

varieties to be propagated; but they are generally and most rapidly

collected from young nursery trees, and as an orchardist or nurseryman

should be able to judge of all the varieties he cultivates by the

appearance of their growth, foliage, bark, dots, etc., there is little

danger in taking the scions from such untested trees.

_Time for cutting Scions._--The scions may be cut at any time after

the cessation of growth in the autumn, even before the leaves have

fallen, until the buds burst in the spring, always avoiding severely

cold or frosty weather, because of the injury to the tree that results

from cutting at such a time, though the frost may not have injured the

scion. The best nurserymen prefer to cut them in the autumn, before

they can have been injured by cold. They should be carefully packed in

fine earth, sand, or sawdust, and placed in the cellar or cave. The

leaves stripped from them, make a very good packing material; moss is

often used, where it can be obtained, but the best material is

saw-dust. This latter is clean, whereas the sand and soil will dull

the knife. If the scions should have become dry and shriveled, they

may still be revived by placing them in soil that is moderately moist,

not wet--they should not, by any means, be placed in water, but should

be so situated that they may slowly imbibe moisture. When they have

been plumped, they should be examined by cutting into their tissues;

if these be brown, they are useless, but if alive, the fresh cut will

look clear and white, and the knife will pass as freely through them

as when cutting a fresh twig.

The after-treatment of the grafts consists in removing the sprouts

that appear upon the stock below the scion, often in great numbers.

These are called robbers, as they take the sap which should go into

the scion. It is sometimes well to leave a portion of these as an

outlet for excess. When the graft is tardy in its vegetation, and in

late grafting, it is always safest to leave some of these shoots to

direct the circulation to the part, and thus insure a supply to the

newly introduced scion; all should eventually be removed, so as to

leave the graft supreme.

It may sometimes be necessary to tie up the young shoot which pushes

with vigor, and may fall and break with its own weight before the

supporting woody fibre has been deposited; but a much better policy is

to pinch in the tip when but a few inches long, and thus encourage the

swelling and breaking of the lateral buds, and produce a more sturdy

result. This is particularly the case in stock-grafts and in renewing

an orchard by top-grafting.

PROPAGATION.--SECTION III.--BUDDING.

ADVANTAGES OF. LONG PERIOD FOR. CLAIMS OF GREATER HARDINESS

EXAMINED. LATE GROWERS APT TO BURST THE BARK. BUD TENDER SORTS.

STOCKS NOT ALWAYS HARDY. PHILOSOPHY OF BUDDING, LIKE GRAFTING,

DEPENDS UPON CELL-GROWTH. THE CAMBIUM, OR "PULP". THE BUD, ITS

INDIVIDUALITY. THOMSON QUOTED. UNION DEPENDS UPON THE BUD.

SEASON FOR BUDDING. CONDITIONS REQUISITE. SPRING BUDDING.

CONDITION OF THE BUDS. BUD STICKS. SELECTION OF. THEIR

TREATMENT. RESTORATION WHEN DRY. THE WEATHER. RAINS TO BE

AVOIDED. USUAL PERIOD OF GROWTH BY EXTENSION. SUCCESSION OF

VARIETIES. CHERRY, PLUM, PEAR, APPLE, QUINCE, PEACH. HOW TO DO

IT. DIFFERENT METHODS. AGE OF STOCKS. PREPARATION OF. THE

KNIFE. CUTTING THE BUDS. REMOVAL OF THE WOOD. THE AMERICAN

METHOD. DIVISION OF LABOR TYING. RING BUDDING. PREPARATION OF

SCIONS FOR EARLY BUDDING. IMPROVEMENTS IN TYING. BAST,

PREPARATION OF. SUBSTITUTES. NOVEL TIE. WHEN TO LOOSEN THE

BANDAGE. HOW DONE. INSPECTION OF BUDS. SIGN OF THEIR HAVING

UNITED. KNIGHT'S TWO BANDAGES. WHY LEAVE THE UPPER ONE LONGER.

HEADING BACK THE STOCKS. RESUME.

BUDDING, or inoculating, is the insertion of eyes or buds. This is a

favorite method of propagation, which is practiced in the

multiplication of a great variety of fruits. The advantages of budding

consist in the rapidity and facility with which it is performed, and

the certainty of success which attends it. Budding may be done during

a long period of the growing season, upon the different kinds of trees

we have to propagate. Using but a single eye, it is also economical of

the scions, which is a matter of some importance, when we desire to

multiply a new and scarce variety.

It has been claimed on behalf of the process of budding, that trees,

which have been worked in this method, are more hardy and better able

to resist the severity of winter than others of the same varieties,

which have been grafted in the root or collar, and also that budded

trees come sooner into bearing. Their general hardiness will probably

not be at all affected by their manner of propagation; except perhaps,

where there may happen to be a marked difference in the habit of the

stock, such for instance as maturity early in the season, which would

have a tendency to check the late growth of the scion placed upon

it--the supplies of sap being diminished, instead of continuing to

flow into the graft, as it would do from the roots of the cutting or

root-graft of a variety which was inclined to make a late autumnal

growth. Practically, however, this does not have much weight, nor can

we know, in a lot of seedling stocks, which will be the late feeders,

and which will go into an early summer rest.

Certain varieties of our cultivated fruits are found to have a

remarkable tendency to make an extended and very thrifty growth,

which, continuing late into the autumn, would appear to expose the

young trees to a very severe trial upon the access of the first cold

weather, and we often find them very seriously injured under such

circumstances; the bark is frequently split and ruptured for several

inches near the ground. The twigs, still covered with abundant

foliage, are so affected by the frost, that their whole outer surface

is shriveled, and the inner bark and wood are browned; the latter

often becomes permanently blackened, and remains as dead matter in the

centre of the tree, for death does not necessarily ensue. Now

intelligent nurserymen have endeavored to avoid losses from these

causes, by budding such varieties upon strong well-established stocks,

though they are aware that these are not more hardy than some of the

cultivated varieties: a given number of seedling stocks has been found

to suffer as much from the severity of winter, as do a similar amount

of the grafted varieties taken at random.[15] That the serious

difficulty of bark-bursting occurs near the surface of the ground,

does seem to be an argument of some weight in favor of budding or

stock-grafting at a higher point. The earlier fruiting of budded trees

than those which have been root-grafted, does not appear to be a well

established fact, and therefore need not detain us; except to observe

that the stocks, upon which the buds were inserted, might have been

older by some years than the slip of root upon which the graft was

set, so that the fruiting of the former tree should count two or three

or more years further back than from the period of the budding. There

are so many causes which might have contributed toward this result of

earlier bearing, that we should not be too hasty in drawing

conclusions in this matter.

The philosophy of budding is very similar to that of grafting. The

latter process is performed when the plant-life is almost dormant, and

the co-apted parts are ready to take the initiative steps of

vegetation, and to effect their union by means of new adventitious

cells, before the free flow of sap in the growing season. Budding, on

the contrary, is done in the hight of that season and toward its

close, when the plants are full of well matured and highly organized

sap, when the cell circulation is most active, and the union between

the parts is much more immediate than in the graft; were it not so,

indeed, the little shield, with its actively evaporating surface of

young bark, must certainly perish from exposure to a hot dry

atmosphere. The _cambium_, or gelatinous matter, which is discovered

between the bark and the wood when they are separated, is a mass of

organizable cells. Mr. Paxton, using the gardener's expression, calls

it the "pulp." Budding is most successfully performed when this matter

is abundant, for then the vitality of the tree is in greatest degree

of exaltation.

The individuality of the bud was sufficiently argued in the first

section of this chapter, it need not now be again introduced, except

as appropriately to remind us of the fact where the propagation

depends upon this circumstance--the future tree must spring from the

single bud which is inserted. Mr. A.T. Thomson, in his Lectures on the

Elements of Botany, page 396, says:--"The individuality of buds must

have been suspected as early as the discovery of the art of budding,

and it is fully proved by the dissection of plants. * * Budding is

founded on the fact, that the bud, which is a branch in embryo, is a

distinct individual. It is essential that both the bud and the tree

into which it is inserted should not only be analogous in their

character, as in grafting with the scion, but both must be in a state

of growth at the time the operation is performed. The union, however,

depends much more upon the bud than upon the stock--the bud may be

considered a centre of vitality--vegetative action commences in the

bud, and extends to the stock, connecting them together."--"The vital

energy, however, which commences the process of organization in the

bud, is not necessarily confined to the germ, nor distinct from that

which maintains the growth of the entire plant; but it is so connected

with organization, that when this has proceeded a certain length, the

bud may be removed from the parent and attached to another, where it

will become a branch the same as if it had not been removed."

The season for budding has already been indicated in general terms, it

is usually done in mid-summer and the early part of autumn, reference

being had to the condition of the plants to be worked; these should be

in a thrifty growing state, the woody fibre should be pretty well

advanced, but growth by extension must still be active, or the needful

conditions will not be found. The "pulp" must be present between the

bark and the wood of the stock, so that the former can be easily

separated from the latter; in the language of the art, the bark must

"run;" this state of things will soon cease in most stocks, after the

formation of terminal buds on the shoots. The success of spring

budding, however, would appear to indicate that the cambium layer is

formed earlier in the season than is usually supposed; for whenever

the young leaves begin to be developed on the stock, "the bark will

run," and the buds may be inserted with a good prospect of success. In

this case we are obliged to use dormant buds that were formed the

previous year, and we have to exercise care in the preservation of

the scions, to keep them back by the application of cold, until the

time of their insertion.