532 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Modes of Propagation. — The Prairie Fanner says: 



A layer is a branch bent down and secured in a trench in the ground, till 

 new roots are formed, when it may be detached and used as a new plant. 

 Grapes and black raspberries are grown in this way. A cutting is a detached 

 branch of last year's wood made into proper length, and inserted in the ground 

 to take root and grow. Currants are grown in this way, and grapes more suc- 

 cessfully than by layering. A sucker is an off-shoot from the root which, on being 

 detached, forms a new plant. Red raspberries and blackberries are propagated 

 from suckers. A bud is an incipient branch which on being detached and 

 inserted under the bark of another tree, with proper conditions, will grow and 

 become a new tree. The stone fruits — peaches, and plums apricots, nectarines 

 — are usually grown in this way; and budding is often used for th« propagation 

 of many other fruits and plants. A graft or scion is a section of a last year's 

 branch inserted wedge fashion into the end of a root or other branch, and thus 

 made to grow. Nursery-grown apple trees are generally produced in this way 

 — using small seeding roots, whole or in sections three or four inches in length, 

 with a graft of about the same length inserted in its top. 



Seedling Trees the Best. — A note in Philadelphia Press we quote: 



I saw my neighbors last spring digging up sucker sprouts from apple trees 

 and planting them to graft. I think this is an unprofitable practice. A good 

 tree can be had sooner from an apple seed than from a sucker six feet high. 

 Young trees grown from the roots of bearing trees seem to lack vitality. When 

 a strawberry plant bears a crop of fruit as well of young plants, these plants 

 will generally prove inferior to those grown from a plant that did not produce 

 fruit. The production of fruit and seed by any tree is an exhaustive process. 



Peculiarities of Northern Products. — The following thoughts, from the 

 pen of Chas. A. Green, do not seem to fit into any particular place under the 

 analysis of our portfolio, but they are so excellent and so important to the 

 nurseryman that we place them here: 



In early days, when Western New York was mostly covered with forests, the 

 timber was easy to split and free from knots. Now that the forests have been 

 cleared away and the wind has gained access to the trees, the timber is found 

 tough, knotty, cross-grained and exceedingly difficult to work into fuel and for 

 other purposes. This change has been wrought by the exposure of the trees. 

 It has been observed that where trees stand alone on an exposed point, they 

 present an entirely different appearance from those grown in the thicket where 

 they are protected. 



An exposed tree strengthens itself at every point where strength is necessary 

 to buffet the winds, and to endure severe exposure. Where the branches are 

 connected with the body of the tree there is an excessive enlargement, not seen 

 in trees protected in the close forests. The branches are also more stocky and 

 strong, while the body of the tree is gradually changed in character. The 

 roots apparently spread further and take a firmer foothold on the soil. It will 

 be found almost impossible to split the trunk of a tree thus exposed. This 

 difficulty in splitting is caused by the toughening process that the tree has un- 

 dergone in fitting itself for its exposed position. 



Mankind is likewise affected by climate and exposure. History tells how 



