THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



one producing fruit sufficiently similar to that of the seed parent to 

 be marketed with it as one variety. In fact the majority of such 

 seedlings yield fruit of poor and inferior quality and are judged 

 unworthy of propagation and cultivation. In the development of 

 varieties it is of distinct advantage when the rare seedling of special 

 merit can be propagated vegetatively. Very often such propa- 

 gation (grafting, budding, cutting, layering, root division, etc.) 

 is the only way the individual plant can be perpetuated and in- 

 creased in numbers. The individual is thus kept in existence and 

 multiplied so that it may be distributed to many growers over a 

 wide area and for an indefinite period of time. 



Evidently this very practical and important lesson was learned 

 early in the cultivation of fruit plants, for the first Greek writers 

 on horticultural matters record that the art of propagation by graft- 

 ing and budding was then already well understood. It appears, 

 however, that during the Middle Ages this art was practiced chiefly 

 as a cult or guild secret and was regarded by the uninitiated as the 

 exercise of magic — a view quite in keeping with the spirit of that 

 time. 



Even within the memory of persons now living, prominent hor- 

 ticulturists have considered that grafting and budding are malicious 

 practices which are perversions of nature and injurious to the 

 plants thus propagated. But it is now recognized that the art 

 simply takes advantage of the natural processes in the healing of 

 wounds in plants. The art of grafting and budding is now taught 

 in horticultural schools of every rank. It is widely practiced. 

 The tricks of the art and the secrets of the propagators' guild are 

 now the common property of all. 



The merits of vegetative propagation of horticultural plants are 

 now fully recognized. No one will advise a grower to plant an 

 orchard of seedlings of the Apple, Pear, Orange, Lemon, Date, 

 etc., or a vineyard of Grape seedlings. Also vegetative propaga- 

 tion simplifies the problem of developing new varieties. The prob- 

 lem in breeding is merely to obtain a seedling of merit ; it is not 

 then necessary to fix its type true to seed by long and laborious 

 selection of seed progenies. The clonal variety immediately in- 

 sures the greatest uniformity possible in propagation. The meth- 



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