SECTION III 

 Methods of Propagation 



In commercial gardening enormous numbers of plants are disposed of 

 each year from the open ground and from under glass, and as soon as one 

 crop is finished, another, as a rule, is ready to take its place. To maintain 

 the equilibrium it is obvious that in accordance with the disposal of the 

 plants a corresponding number must be raised each year. 



Crops are raised in various ways, viz.: From (1) seeds; (2) cuttings of 

 stems, leaves, or roots; (3) layers; (4) runners; (5) suckers; (6) offsets; 

 (7) bulbils; (8) division of the rootstocks; (9) budding; (10) grafting and 

 inarching. The commercial grower naturally adopts the method of propa- 

 gation that will produce him a saleable crop within the shortest possible 

 period, although a particular crop may be raised by more than one 

 method. 



Seeds. Although in a state of nature this is the natural means of re- 

 producing plants, it is not always the best or most satisfactory under other 

 conditions. A whole host of plants, however, are raised from seeds each 

 year, and in this way the seed trade already referred to at p. 2 is kept 

 well employed. Such plants as annuals and biennials are necessarily raised 

 from seeds, because they cannot well be perpetuated in any other way, 

 owing to the short time they live. All natural species that ripen seed in 

 our climate, and many florists' flowers, may be raised from seed, and the 

 young plants will reproduce all the features of their parents. In the case 

 of many florists' flowers, however, like Begonias, Dahlias, Chrysanthe- 

 mums, Carnations, Snapdragons, Pentstemoiis, Petunias, Gloxinias, and 

 many others, special varieties are propagated by other means, as they 

 are unlikely to come perfectly true if raised from seed. Variations may 

 and do occur as the result of cross-fertilization by insect agency, and this 

 is often sufficient to alter the character of the flowers. All choice varieties 

 of fruit trees and roses are not raised from seeds, except in the first in- 

 stance. Most vegetable crops, being of an annual or biennial nature, are 

 raised from seeds. Great care, however, is taken by raisers to keep their 

 stocks of special varieties quite pure and free from cross-fertilization with 

 inferior strains. The plants to bear seeds are grown in places as far as 



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