CHAPTER III. 



PROPAGATION OF VARIETIES. 



Living at an age when thousands of choice varieties 

 of fruits are in cultivation, we perhaps do not properly 

 appreciate the labors of the pomologists, who, by 

 making it a life work, have transformed the insipid 

 peach, the sour crab and the wild and worthless pear into 

 the luscious fruits that we now have in our orchards and 

 fruit gardens. A great deal of pleasure can be derived 

 from the attention and constant watch-care which it is 

 necessary to bestow upon plants in order to produce val- 

 uable new varieties; but what most interests the ordi- 

 nary farmer and fruit grower is to know what varieties 

 of fruit, already in existence, are best adapted to his 

 climate and his soil, and to understand the methods by 

 which they are propagated. After a new and choice 

 variety has been obtained, though at first but a single 

 tree or plant, it may, in a short lime, be greatly mul- 

 tiplied bx budding, grafting, layers, suckers or cut- 

 tings. Of these methods, budding and grafting are used 

 principally for the propagation of fruit trees. They in- 

 volve the same principles, produce like results and con- 

 sist simply in the insertion of a bud, or stick of buds, 

 of one tree into another in such a manner as to cause 

 a union between the two, the consequent growth re- 

 sulting in a new compound. 



