PROPAGATION OF PLANTS WITHOUT SEEDS 35 



CHAPTER III. 

 PROPAGATION OF PLANTS WITHOUT SEEDS. 



The Raising of Fruit Trees. Plants propagate them- 

 selves naturally either by seeds or by buds. One or both of 

 these natural methods is used by the farmer for all plants 

 and crops. Very few fruits "come true" from seed because 

 the seeds are formed by cross-pollination. The pollen is 

 carried by insects and wind from other varieties. For this 

 reason the nurserymen, who produce the young fruit trees 

 or bushes, must avoid the use of seeds. With such fruits seeds 

 may be used in an effort to secure new varieties, or to pro- 

 duce stocks on which to grow the improved varieties; but 

 the standard sorts are multiplied by some form of bud 

 propagation, such as grafting, true budding, layering, and 

 making cuttings. 



Propagation of Apples. One common method for the 

 production of young apple trees involves the use of grafting. 

 It is called the root-grafting process. 



First. Seeds from cider-presses are planted in garden 

 rows and the young trees cultivated for one summer to get 

 the greatest growth possible. These trees would probably 

 never bear good apples if they were allowed to reach matu- 

 rity, but they serve admirably as the stocks on which to grow 

 good trees. They are taken up roots and all, in the fall, 

 tied in bundles of one hundred each, and well stored in moist- 

 ened sawdust in a very cold cellar. 



Second. Well-matured shoots of one-year wood are cut 

 for scions from the tops of good specimens of apple trees of 

 the varieties we may wish to propagate. These are properly 

 labelled, tied in bundles, and stored in the same manner as 

 the seedling trees. This is done in late fall. 



