54 AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS 



EXERCISE 



Consult Bulletin 29, Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



Read Bailey's " Plant Breeding," and then attempt to cross some 

 plants. You must remember that many crosses must be attempted 

 in order to gain success with even a few, 



SECTION XVII PLANT PROPAGATION BY BUDS 



It is the business of the farmer to propagate plants. 

 This he does in one of two ways : by buds, that is by 

 small pieces cut from parent plants, or by seeds. The 

 chief aim in both methods should be to secure in the 

 most convenient manner the best paying plants. 



Many plants are most easily and quickly propagated by 

 buds, as for example the grape, red raspberry, fig, and 

 many others that we cultivate for the flower only, such as 

 the carnation, geranium, rose, and begonia. 



In growing plants from cuttings, a piece is taken from 

 the kind of plant that one wishes to grow. The greatest 

 care must be exercised in order to get a healthy cutting. 

 If we take a cutting from a poor plant, what can we expect 

 but to grow a poor plant like the one from which our 

 cutting was taken ? On the other hand, if a fine, strong, 

 vigorous, fruitful plant be selected, we shall expect to 

 produce just such a fine, strong, fruitful plant. 



We expect the cutting to make just exactly the same 

 variety of plant as the parent stock. We must therefore 

 decide upon the variety of berry, grape, fig, carnation, or 

 rose that we wish to propagate, and then look for the 

 strongest and most promising plants of this variety at our 



