1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



337 



use of that grain is strongly urged. We have here 

 another example of the general fact of the readiness 

 of fanners to bo gulled, and the facility with which error 

 is propagated, and fraud succeeds— and the difficulty 

 with which truth is permitted to operate, to guard 

 against oitlier. Probably the experimenters near Staun- 

 ton are now at that stage of the trial in which our cor- 

 respondent was last year, and, therefore, are honestly 

 of opinion that, if due allowance is made for every sup- 

 posed cause of diminution, the crop is really promising. 

 Or, perhaps, some who have paid three or four dollars 

 a bushel for their seed, are desirous to make the crop 

 sell as well, and to come in for a little of such large 

 profits as Mr. Hathaway seems to have realized.] 



From the Gardener's Magazine. 



remapaS on the propagation of the 



DAHLIA. 



Every cultivator of the dahlia is aware of the 

 faciHty with which it is propagated by cuttings of 

 the young shoots, plunged in a little bottom heat. 

 Indeed, from a single root, under proper treat- 

 ment, several dozens of young plants may be 

 raised in a short space of time. Consequently, 

 this method is universally adopted by nurserymen; 

 they annually requirins; a large stock of yoimg 

 plants for sale ; and by individuals anxious to 

 propagate extensively a new variety. But it 

 ought not to be practised by amateurs or others, 

 anxious to obtain fine perfect flowers lor exhibi- 

 tion or otherwise. 1 speak advisedly, and irom 

 experience, when I assert, that plants raised from 

 cuttings do not produce equally perfect flowers, in 

 regard to size, form, and fulness, with those pro- 

 duced by plants grown from division of the tubers, 

 the old method of propagating the dahlia. It has 

 been said that plants raised from cuttings flower 

 more abundantly than those raised by division ; 

 but to this I am not prepared to subscribe. 



Physiological botany readily accounts for the 

 difl'erent results of the two methods. The starch 

 or feculent matter, stored in the roots, is intended 

 by nature for the nutrition of the annual shoots, 

 not only until the tubers have formed, at the com- 

 mencement of the vegetating season, the spongi- 

 oles necessary for the absorption of the required 

 quantity of papula; but also when that the spon- 

 gioles are unable, from drought, or other causes, 

 to absorb a sufficiency of nutrient matter, to sus- 

 tain the rapidly developing and vigorous vegeta- 

 tion. 



Plants propagated by cuttings cannot, of course, 

 absorb the nutriment prepared and stored, during 

 the last season, in the tubers of the mother root ; 

 and are Ibrced to form spongioles and tubers for 

 themselves. But the fecula contained in these 

 latter is not, till towards the end of the year, suf- 

 ficient in quantity, or sufficiently ripened by the 

 deposition of carbon, to be in any way servicea- 

 ble. 



The potato might be propagated by cuttings of 

 the young shoots, in the same way with the 

 dahlia ; but such plants would not, in the early 

 stages of their growth, be nourished by the starch 

 of the tubers; and, therefore, would neither be so 

 strong and vigorous as plants raised in the usual 

 Vol. VI.— 43 



method, nor would they yield a return equal in 

 wciiihtor quantity. 



It is well known that tubers and bulbs, when 

 placed in damp situations (the potato (or instance 

 in a damp cellar,) develop their leaf-buds ; and 

 that these continue to grow and elongate, without 

 the assistance of rootlets or spongioles, so long as 

 there is any fecula in the tuber or bulb ; but that 

 when this is exhausted the stem withers and dies. 

 Wc hence perceive how important the nourish-^ 

 ment derived from this substance is to the vigor of 

 the plant, and why whole tubers of potatoes pro- 

 duce larger crops than are produced by cut sets. 

 Hence, too, we may learn why perfijctly ripe sets 

 are so much more certain of success than unripe 

 ones ; the fecula in the former being so much the 

 more abundant, and more perfectly elaborated. 

 To the unripeness of the sets is attributable the 

 failure of the potato-crops in some parts of Scot- 

 land, in the autumns of 1835 and 1836, and the 

 consequent misery and starvation of the unfortu- 

 nate peasantry. 



I feel no doubt that much of the disappointment 

 and dissatisfaction experienced by buyers of new 

 varieties of the dahlia, arising from these so rarely 

 answering the expectations formed of them, is the 

 result of the system of propagating from cuttings, 

 A good seedling is raised: the grower is naturally 

 anxious to make the most he possibly can of it; 

 he therefore plunges the root in heat, and strikes 

 every cutting he can force it to throw out. The 

 5'oung plants are consequently weak and unheal- 

 thy, rarely throw out a good flower during the 

 whole season, and are probably discarded, as un- 

 deserving of further notice. My first plant of 

 Brewer's Rival King was a cutting from a root, 

 which had been much worked, and consequently, 

 did not show a good flower during the season. 

 The next year, I grew it from tubers, and also 

 from cuttings: the latter always produced imper- 

 fect flowers, but the former beautifully perfect 

 ones. With many other varieties, I have found 

 the same difference between plants raised from 

 cuttings and those from tubers. 



I would therefore recommend, in order to secure 

 a good and satisfactory bloom, that the roots be 

 laid, in March, in a damp warm place, such as a 

 forcing-house, gentle hot-bed, or even a cellar; 

 and that when the buds show themselves, each 

 root be divided into as many pieces as may be re- 

 quired, retaining a hud to each piece ; and that 

 they be then planted separately in 48-sized pots. 

 The after-treatment is the same as for plants raised 

 from cuttings. 



From the Horticultural Register. 

 FLOWERS, FRUITS, AND TREES. 



By H. Jl. S. Dearborn. 



Mr. Breck — The season having been unusually 



favorable for vegetation, and especially since the 

 15th of May, the consequent verdant and magnifi- 

 cent appearance of the country, with the bland- 

 ness and congeniality of the weather, have in- 

 duced vast numbers of persons to visit the many 

 highly cultivated wardens in the environs of Bos- 

 ton, several of which have attracted universal at- 



