PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 169 



HOW TO RAISE AN APPLE TREE 



By the time a child is one year old he may plant an 

 apple seed in the earth. He may not know what he has 

 done for several years afterwards, but this is apt to be 

 the case with all great works of man, no matter how old 

 he may be. 



Ask each one of the class to save a few apple seeds, 

 and without allowing them to become dry, have the chil- 

 dren plant them in a drill across the propagation bed. 

 Drive a stick labeled " Seeds of - - Apples " at one 

 end of the row. When the seedlings come up in the 

 spring, thin to two or three inches apart and keep the 

 ground mellow and free from weeds. See how tall you 

 can make them grow. Before the ground freezes in the 

 fall dig them up, saving all the roots, tie them in a labeled 

 bundle, and keep in moist, not wet, sand in a cool cellar. 

 We must now learn how to graft before we can go on. 1 



Grafting. You have learned that a bud is in embryo a 

 plant of its kind. When set in the ground, certain kinds 

 that are strong enough will form roots of their own. Other 

 buds that do not form roots so readily we plant in some 

 closely related tree, and they may grow up to form its 

 trunk, or, if inserted in a limb, one of its branches. 



1 I regret to differ with a number of recent writers on nature study who 

 advise children to get nursery-grown trees to start with. We should do 

 this, of course, if fruit and quick returns are the objects ; but where culti- 

 vation of patience, resource, and education are the ends in view, this is 

 just the thing that ought not to be done. This work will require only a 

 few minutes' attention each year, and to have started at the seed, the natu- 

 ral beginning, may develop in the child a relation to his tree deeper than 

 the purely commercial. 



