CHAPTEE IX 



THE PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 

 1. The Kinds of Propagation 



213. Plants naturally propagate by two gen- 

 eral means, by seeds and by buds. All the 

 modes of the propagating of plants employed by 

 the farmer and gardener are but modifications 

 of these two general types. 



214. The farmer has three objects in view in 

 the propagation of plants : to renew the genera- 

 tion, or to prevent the stock from dying out ; to 

 increase the number of plants ; to perpetuate a 

 particular variety. Thus, the farmer must resow 

 his wheat, or he will lose the stock ; but he ex- 

 pects to secure more plants than were concerned 

 in the production of the seed which he sows ; 

 and he also expects to reap a particular variety, 

 as Diehl or Mediterranean. 



215. Seeds are always able to preserve the 

 race or stock and to increase the number of 

 plants, but they are not always able to produce 

 the variety which bore them. Most farm crops 

 and most garden vegetables reproduce the va- 



(132) 



