300 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



able for the anomaly is the destructive influence of acetic acid, 

 so harmless to the animal organism, which, even in very small 

 quantity, prevented germination as completely as the poison- 

 ous oxalic acid ; prussic acid, on the contrary, only retarded 

 the development of the germ. Being volatile, it disappears 

 from the solution, and a great proportion of the seeds germi- 

 nated, while arsenic acid destroyed the germs entirely. Mr. 

 Vogel also exposed his seeds to an atmosphere of coal gas, 

 and found that, when thoroughly purified, its influence was 

 not deleterious. Believing that the destructive action of the 

 impure gas is due to the admixture of tar, he examined some 

 of its constituents, and found naphthaline to be quite harmless 

 to vegetation, while a minimum of carbolic acid was sufficient 

 to kill every trace of germination. Sitz. ber. K. Bayer. Akacl. 

 der Wiss. Munchen, 1870, II., 3, 289. 



RAISING FRUIT-TREES FROM THE SEED. 



Mr. A. Czerny, of Austria, states, as the result of long-con- 

 tinued observations and experiments, that the strongest and 

 best fruit-trees can be raised from seed, thus obviating a 

 great deal of expense and disappointment to the pomologist. 

 According to his observations, the extent and ramification of 

 the roots of a healthy tree is to that of its crown in the ratio 

 of three to two, so that the action of the roots is always pre- 

 ponderating. In this relation he finds the reason why fruit 

 seeds from trees, budded or grafted upon indifferent stocks, 

 have always been found unreliable, and he endeavors, as the 

 first step, to obtain good trees grown upon their own stock, 

 the seeds of which, he says, will reproduce their parents with 

 certainty. To this end he layers a branch of a good tree, 

 which, when well rooted, serves him as stock, into which he 

 introduces buds or scions of such varieties as promise to im- 

 prove the original fruit. By judicious cross fertilization he 

 obtains fruit the seed of which will propagate, to a greater 

 or less extent, the good qualities of the varieties used in hy- 

 bridizing, and thus a new fruit is originated which, when 

 suitable, can always be reproduced from its seed. Such trees, 

 says Mr. Czerny, are more healthy and vigorous (having nev- 

 er been wounded by the knife), bear earlier, and, when acci- 

 dentally injured in the stem, throw out shoots identical with 

 those of the original tree. 8 (7, 1871, 10]. 



