64 GENERAL PKLNCIPLES. 



years. He allowed only a couple of specimens to remain 

 on each tree, and these, consequently, were very large, 

 matm*e, and every way fine, and from these the seeds were 

 taken. Seedlings may be tested quickly, by budding or 

 grafting them on bearing trees. We may fruit apj)les and 

 pears in this way, in fom* or five years, whilst ten or fif- 

 teen would be necessary on their own roots. Experimenters 

 on this subject have found the seeds of new varieties are 

 more certain to produce good fruit than the seed of old 

 ones. 



2. By Divisimi of the Plants. — It has been remarkecl 

 in the article on buds, that every bud is capable, under 

 favorable circumstances, of producing a new individual, 

 similar to that from w^hich it is taken. 



Hence it is, that out of the young annual wood of an ap- 

 ple, pear, peach, or any other fruit tree, we frequently 

 make several himdreds. Every good, well-formed bud, 

 properly separated, and inserted under the bark of the in- 

 dividuals of the same, or a closely allied, species, will, in 

 one year from its insertion, or with one season's growth, 

 have become a new tree. It is by these means we are 

 enabled to disseminate new varieties with such wonderful 

 rapidity. If a young tree of a new variety will make half 

 a dozen shoots the first season, each bearing half a dozen 

 buds, we can, if we have stocks to bud on, be in possession 

 of thirty trees of that variety in two years from the time 

 we obtained one tree, and in another year we may have 

 fom- times that number. The production of a tree from a 

 Imd^ a graft.^ a layei\ or 2i cutting^ is but the same thing 

 efiected by difierent means. In all the cases, a part of the 

 parent plant, with one or more buds attached, is separated 

 from it. The cutting^ sometimes composed of one bud or 

 joint, and sometimes of several, we put directly in the 

 ground, where it forms roots. The graft is a cutting in- 



