DIFFERENT WAYS OF PROPAGATING 167 



cultivation, what wearisome labor to improve its 

 quality from one year to another, what care to pre- 

 vent its degenerating and to hand it down to pos- 

 terity in perfect condition. Think of all this and 

 you will see how the smallest fruit, the smallest vege- 

 table, represents more than the toil of him who has 

 raised it in his garden. It represents, perhaps, the 

 accumulated effort of a hundred generations, an ef- 

 fort indispensable if we are to have a succulent pot- 

 herb as the descendant of a worthless weed. We live 

 on the fruit and vegetables created by our prede- 

 cessors; we live on the labor, strength, ideas of the 

 past. May the future in its turn live on our strength 

 both of arm and thought ! So shall we worthily ful- 

 fill our mission. 



"It was not chance that gave man the idea of 

 layering, slipping, and grafting, but rather the 

 thoughtful observation of nature's methods all about 

 him. He who was first, for example, to note how the 

 strawberry grows and multiplies, received the first 

 lesson in layering. Let us in our turn examine this 

 curious process. 



"From the parent stock of the strawberry vine a 

 number of runners start out, long, slender, and 

 creeping on the ground. These runners are also 

 known as stolons or creeping suckers. After reach- 

 ing a certain distance they expand at the end into a 

 little tuft which takes root in the ground and is soon 

 self-supporting. The new tuft of the strawberry 

 vine, as soon as strong enough, in its turn sends out 

 long runners which follow the example of the first 



