FINE ARTS OF A COUNTRY HOME 245 



ture will find means sufficient to do her share of the 

 work. She keeps the bees and insects as well as 

 the wind at work; and then the birds and animals, 

 having eaten the fruit, scatter the seed. Man comes 

 in to destroy the poorest and make sure of the preser- 

 vation of the best. In the wild state that is best as 

 a rule which has the toughest wood, but in the cul- 

 tivated state, that is best which gives the largest and 

 sweetest fruit. 



So you see that if you leave to Nature to finish up 

 this job, she will multiply all the time the most 

 prolific and hardiest. No one can guess how many 

 millions of magnificent products have been crowded 

 down and out by coarser stock. When by careful 

 art we have secured a cross of high value the problem 

 comes how to preserve it. There are three ways; 

 by root division, by grafting, and by planting seed. 

 It happens, however, that there is not a single apple 

 swinging on a bough in the United States that is not 

 more or less already cross-fertilized. It has in it 

 the spirit or life of many parents. If we sow its 

 seed we will not get the same apple. We must rely 

 upon grafting a selected sort into inferior stock. 



By grafting near the ground we can sometimes rn- 

 duce roots to start above the insertion of the scion, 

 after which we have the new variety on its own roots. 

 In this way I have a half dozen of the very choicest 

 plums that can be multiplied by young shoots that 

 come up from the ground instead of by grafting. 

 When working at this magnificent art, be careful not 



