The seed is certainly nature's jirimal, chosen nielli(xl of reproduction — tlu' ])erfcct 

 cnil>rvo of a new, perfect individual — notliing second Land, or second rate, or iictitious, 

 or a«lventitious about it. It is not one of many parts of a tree given to manufacture 

 the rest, but all parts reduced, embodied, pledged to reproduce the Avhole. In exam- 

 ining' the seed more closely, we find one part designed for the radicle, which is frst 

 developed ; afterwards another, designed for the stem ; and that these parts are 

 utterly distinct — not interchangeable — a most significant fact. Each part, then, must 

 remain by itself, each for its own element, and get each dependent on the other. And 

 liere at this point of union, if any where, is the life of the tree — the very seat of 

 vitality — that common center from which all other parts radiate, and which, therefore, 

 if any part, is indispensable. 



That buds possess a species of vitality and are capable of indefinite, and, in some cases, 

 profitable, extension or multiplication, is undeniable. Still it must be, from the very 

 nature of things, an inferior, dependent process. There is no real re-production — no 

 internal rencAval of life, or vigor, or individuality, — but merely a sort of polypus-like 

 increase, with, as I must think, a decided tendency, (at least among the more import- 

 ant varieties of fruit.) in every successive generation, to lose a portion of its original 

 reproductive energy, unless that tendency be counteracted by working on strong seed- 

 ling stocks. 



The crowning effort of nature is reproduction. But man has interfered and diverted 

 her energies from the formation of the most and best seeds to the production of fine 

 flowers or fruits, making every other consideration secondary. The consequence is 

 that some of our choicest fruits and flowers have almost no seeds, and are themselves 

 few and feeble. Observe the wonderful productiveness of — we had almost said what- 

 ever is not cultivated — but compare the products of the original types of our fruits 

 and flowers with those of the choice cultivated varieties, though none but the most 

 productive are selected for propagation. No one can for a moment doubt that this 

 seed-bearing propensity which thus underlies our whole system of horticultural produc- 

 tion, is decidedly the strongest in seedlings ; and, therefore, as we value the products 

 of our trees, we should not lightly thrust aside their main prop. 



Habit is (almost) everything ; and if our trees, generation after generation, are to 

 be worked from highly forced, root-grafted nursery trees, which are often little better 

 than rooted cuttings, or more properly leaf buds, far removed from seedlings or fruit 

 buds, we must not wonder if a habit of growing instead of bearing, there acquired and 

 thus ingrained, predominate ever after. Like produces like ; seedlings produce seeds, 

 at least with whatever of fruit may be wrapped around them ; while leaf buds, thus 

 stereotyped, incline to produce leaf buds alone. Deeply conscious as I am of our 

 horticultural inferiority here at the West, this lesson I must think we have learned by 

 experience ; if our Eastern friends have not, I would suggest that it might possibly be 

 because their ancestors were not so well skilled in commercial gardening, especially 

 the great art of root-grafting! Justice, however, requires the acknowledgement, in 

 this connection, of our faults, if such they should prove to be. That root-gi-afting has 

 ever been, as we believe, more generally practiced at the West than the East, and that 



