136 THE FIRST BOOK OF FARMING 



this reason it is impossible to get true varieties of 

 fruit from seed. For example, if we plant seeds 

 of the wine sap apple, the new trees produced from 

 them will not produce the same kind of apple but 

 each tree will produce something different and they 

 will very likely all be poorer than the parent fruit. 

 This is because of the mixture of pollens which fer- 

 tilize the pistils. Knowing this fact the nurseryman 

 plants apple seeds and grows apple seedlings. 

 When these get to be the size of a lead pencil he 

 grafts them, that is, he digs them up, cuts off the 

 tops away down to the root and then takes twigs 

 from the variety he wishes to grow and sets or 

 splices these twigs in the roots of the seedlings and 

 then plants them. The root and the new top unite 

 and produce a tree that bears the same kind of fruit 

 as that produced by the tree from which the twig 

 was taken. 



These are a few of the reasons why it is well to 

 know something about flowers and their work. 



FRUIT 



The pistil develops and forms the fruit of the 

 plant. This fruit bears seed for the production of 

 new plants. This fruit may be a dry pod like the 

 bean or pea, or it may be a fleshy fruit like the 

 apple or plum. Now the developing pistil or fruit 

 may be checked in its work of seed production by 

 insects and diseases, and to secure good fruit it is 

 in many cases necessary to spray the fruits just as 



