IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



formed with the potato and the tomato, along the 

 lines of an experiment first made a good many 

 years ago by Mr. Burbank. This consists of 

 grafting the stem of the tomato plant on the roots 

 of the potato, and, contrariwise, the stem of the 

 potato on the roots of the tomato. 



The process of grafting is not unlike that of 

 grafting twigs on a tree, consisting essentially of 

 bringing the cut surfaces of the two stems in close 

 and accurate contact, and binding them together 

 until union is effected. The stems should be of 

 the same size, and it will be well to notch them in 

 such a way that they fit accurately together. The 

 experiment will not be successful in every case, 

 but the interesting results of a single success will 

 compensate for many failures. 



In Mr. Burbank 's experiments the potatoes 

 grown on vines having tomato tops were curi- 

 ously distorted in shape, and some of them had a 

 rough and scaly surface. The leaves of the to- 

 mato were seemingly not able to produce just the 

 right kind of material for the manufacture of 

 normal potatoes, yet they performed their vicari- 

 ous function better than might have been expected, 

 considering that under normal conditions they are 

 called on to produce material for something so 

 widely different from the potato as the familiar 

 fruit of the tomato. 



Perhaps it should be explained that the leaf of 

 a plant contains the laboratory in which carbonic 

 acid from the atmosphere is compounded with 

 water to form the organic sugars and starches 



[123] 



