120 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



mayor, was never known to make a speech, but I hope you will take 

 an interest in this meeting and do it all the good you can. We have a 

 large program, and it will take all the time. I again thank you for the 

 welcome by the mayor. 



Vocal music — Arion quartette. 



Presidenc — The first paper is by Homer Higgle, a student of Shaw's 

 School of Botany, sent there by the Missouri State Horticultural 

 Society, graduated and gone to the Perdue University of Greencastle, 

 Indiana. Mr. Goodman will read the paper. 



The Propagation oi" Orcbard Trees. 



By Homer Higgle, tirst graduate of Shaw's School of Botany. 



The natural method of propagation of fruit-trees is by seeds. With 

 most of our cultivated fruits, however, the seedlings are very variable, 

 as many varieties as there are seedlings being produced. Experience 

 has proven that by far the greater part of these seedling varieties will 

 be inferior to the improved varieties generally in cultivation. Thus it 

 is seldom that a new variety of real merit is introduced. Generally 

 speaking, seedlings are grown only for stocks upon which to bud or 

 graft superior sorts. 



As seedlings do not reproduce the qualities of the parents, we can 

 perpetuate a definite variety only by using a i)ortion of the tree itself. 

 This must be effected by means of cuttings, layers, suckers, grafts or 

 buds. By far the greater part of our fruit-trees are propagated by 

 building or grafting. These methods are only artificial means of supply- 

 ing roots to a detached portion of a valuable tree, or, conversely, of 

 supplying a valuable top to the root of an inferior tree. 



METHODS OF GRAFTING. 



There are numerous methods of grafting practiced in fruit-culture. 

 The principal ones are the cleft graft, and the whip-and-tongue graft. 

 Cleft grafting is practiced in the spring, about the first of April, and 

 continued through the year. The branches are sawed off about 18 or 

 20 inches from the body of the tree, and the end of the stock cut 

 smooth with a sharp knife. It is then split down about two or three 

 inches, and a wedge placed in the center of the stick, until the cions 

 are prepared [and pressed into place, when the wedge is removed. 

 When inserting the cions, their inner bark should match with that of 

 the stock. After the cions are inserted, the top and both sides of the 



