70 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



take its natural bent, is directed into the stolons or run- 

 ners, which form natural layers. Their production de- 

 tracts from the central wood-growth of the plant, and 

 exhausts its strength to such a degree, that it often dies, 

 whereas, by a constant removal of the runners, as fast as 

 they appear, we practice a sort of summer pruning or 

 pinching, which results in the production of a large branch- 

 ing stool, with many points or centers for the production 

 of foliage and flowers, and thus insure the greatest abun- 

 dance of fruit. Tho strawberry, like one species of the 

 raspberry, and many other of our native plants, offers il- 

 lustrations of natural layering. 



SEEDS. The most common as well as the most natural 

 mode of multiplying the individual plants of most of our 

 fruit trees, is by sowing the seed ; from this source we 

 procure stocks upon which are worked, by budding or 

 grafting, the several varieties we may desire to propagate. 

 As an illustration of this process, I propose to speak of 

 apple seedlings. 



The almost universal means of increasing the number 

 of apple trees, is by sowing the seed. This is generally 

 selected and separated from the fresh pomace left on the 

 press in cider-making. The old and slow process of hand- 

 washing has given way, in this age of labor-saving ma- 

 chinery, to more economical methods. The most approved 

 apparatus is constructed upon the principle of separating 

 the seeds from the pulp by means of their greater specific 

 gravity ; it is, indeed, much like a gold washer, being a 

 series of boxes or troughs through which a current of wa- 

 ter is made to flow ; this carries the lighter portions away 

 from the seeds, the contents of the boxes being agitated 



