METHODS USED IN THE PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 

 By Theophilus D. Hatfield, Wellesley, Mass. 



Delivered before the Society, March 4, 1916. 



The profession of gardening is very much Hke the profession 

 of medicine and the gardener may safely call himself a plant doctor. 

 He brings plants into the world, takes care of them in sickness and 

 in health, but, like the Chinese doctor, he is paid for his services 

 only on condition that he keeps his patients well. 



With gardening operations in general and particularly in the 

 propagation of plants there is much that is experimental. The 

 old saying is as true as ever "It is easy when you know how." 

 Intuition, no doubt, plays an important part, practice makes per- 

 fect, we often guess and guess right, and if we don't succeed w^e 

 try again. 



When a young man it was my duty to wait on the propagator; 

 help to make cuttings; tie after budding; clay after grafting; and 

 otherwise fetch and carry. I often wondered how the propagator 

 had accumulated so much knowledge and figured on the time it 

 would take me to know so much. As I grew older and began to 

 study the plants under my care, to get interested in wild plants 

 and nature in the woods and pastures, "I found many questions 

 answered and I have found that nearly all the methods used by 

 man in the propagation of plants exemplified by nature herself. 

 As Shakspere observes 



" 'Tis an art that doth mend nature. 

 Change it rather, for the art itself 

 is nature." 



The propagation of plants may be divided into the following 

 classes: from cuttings; by layers; by grafts; by division; and 

 from seeds and spores. 



89 



