94 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



the whole length of the flowering shoot is needed to satisfy the market de- 

 mand for long-stemmed roses, and the supply of suitable wood from which 

 to propagate the next season's stock of plants is greatly lessened, or it may 

 be entirely cut ofif. But there is always a greater or less supply of "blind 

 wood." Consequently, why not use it for purposes of propagation? If the 

 plants grown from blind wood do not perpetuate the tendency of the parent 

 shoots (which are non-flowering), then there can be no objection to its use 

 for the purpose of propagating the next season's stock. But if it does per- 

 petuate the tendency of the parent stem, then there is danger. 



In order that more definite statements may be made on this point, the 

 writer has for five years carried on a test with rose plants from the two types 

 of wood above mentioned. Before stating the results of this experiment, 

 however, I wish to call to mind a few of the experiments which have been 

 made which throw light upon the point in question. 



Do cuttings tend to perpetuate the peculiarities of the parent branch from 

 which they are taken? To answer this, I need hardly do more than call 

 attention to the fact that propagation by cuttings is employed almost exclu- 

 sively for the perpetuation of cultural varieties of all fruit and ornamental 

 plants which are capable of being grown from cuttings. Many annual plants, 

 however, come true from seed and A'arietal differences, while not so constant 

 as in plants grown from cuttings are, nevertheless, sufficiently close for all 

 commercial purposes. If we were to go a step farther, we might be justified 

 in considering the various processes of budding and grafting as identical in 

 their results with that of propagation by cuttings. 



Budding and grafting are in reality processes of division, the same as is 

 the growing of plants from cuttings. In all three of these modes of repro- 

 duction the results are so constant that we never stop to question the fact ; 

 yet we constantly commit the blunder of ignoring qualities quite as important 

 as the varietal peculiarity itself. In fruit growing, nurserymen propagate from 

 a Baldwin tree, whether it has ever borne fruit or not, simply because they 

 know it to be a Baldwin. Yet in the face of this we are being taught by our 

 advance agents that each tree has an individuality, and, in fact, that each 

 branch and bud is in its peculiar way different from every other branch or 

 bud, even upon the same tree. If we accept these statements as true, and we 

 have no good reason to doubt them, then the peculiar tendencies of the plant, 

 or of a branch of a plant, may be expected to play a more or less importaiU 

 part in determining the behavior of the plant or plants propagated from it. 

 Orchardists have observed these differences, and are slowly coming to exer- 

 cise greater care in the selection of cions. This precaution not only influences 

 fruit production, but it has been clearly pointed out by Smith, Fairchild and 

 others the health of plants from which buds and cions are taken measures to 

 a very marked degree the health and longevity of the resulting tree. 



If we find these differences among plants grown from buds and cions, 

 quite as marked peculiarities may be anticipated in plants grown from cut- 

 tings. Upon this point recorded observations are exceedingly meagre, but 

 some light can be gathered from the work published by myself in the Ninth 

 Annual Report of the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station. Froii] 



