Making More and Better Fruit Trees—By S. W. Fletcher 
INCREASE OF STOCK BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE HABITS OF 
LITTLE TRICKS THAT FACILITATE AN 
TREE OR BUSH—WHEN 
“ BET TER-THAN-THE-AVERAGE”’ 
GROWTH—HOW TO PERPETUATE A 
PERHAPS your neighbor has a new or a 
rare variety of some fruit the nursery- 
man cannot supply, and from which he is 
willing to let you have cuttings, or grafts; 
perhaps in your own garden there is one tree 
of unusual excellence. If so, you will want 
to know just how to increase the quantity. 
There is no small attraction, too, in the mere 
pleasure of multiplying plants; but as a prac- 
tical economy it is far better and cheaper as a 
rule to buy from a reliable nurseryman than 
to attempt to propagate them at home. 
FRUITS THAT COME TRUE FROM SEED 
Few of the common fruits ‘‘come true”’ 
from seed; the seedlings are usually quite 
dissimilar to the parent. Some varieties, 
however, notably the Green Gage plum, 
Crawford peach, and the Fameuse apple 
come more true from seed than others. 
Propagation from seed is chiefly resorted to 
for raising seedling stocks on which to bud 
or graft desirable varieties. A large number 
of tropical and sub-tropical fruits are com- 
monly grown from seed, but even these seed- 
ling fruits are variable, and when it is de- 
sired to perpetuate improved varieties of 
them, recourse must be had to grafting or 
some other method of dividing the plant. 
“STRATIFYING”’? SEEDS 
As soon as the seeds are mature they are 
mixed with sand, after the pulp has been 
removed, as with plum or peach pits; or 
with the decayed pulp clinging to them, as 
with strawberry or raspberry. On the 
bottom of a flat or shallow box place about 
an inch of sand, then a thin layer of seeds, 
followed by an inch of sand, then seeds, and 
so on to the top. Fine seeds that cannot be 
screened out readily may be put between 
folds of cheesecloth. Bury the flat to its rim 
in some well drained spot out of doors, and 
cover with straw after the sand has frozen 
solid; or it may be placed in the cellar, but 
care should be taken that no mice, blue jays, 
squirrels or other animals disturb it. The 
sand is kept barely moist, not wet, and never 
allowed to become dry. 
The cion and the piece of 
root are first split, then joined together and tied with 
waxed string. Whip grafting is done the same way 
Making a root:-graft. 
After some months, usually at the end of 
the winter, the seed coats are found to 
be softened, so that germination is easy. 
Freezing the seeds is not necessary; moisture 
alone will soften the seed coats sufficiently, 
but freezing is quite beneficial to such bony 
seeds as peach and plum. 
In spring screen out and sow the seeds; or 
if they are very small, the sand itself may be 
sown. The large fruit seeds may be sown 
in the garden; it may be best to sow the very 
small seeds in shallow boxes of light soil, and 
transplant them to the garden later. Some 
bony fruit seeds do not all germinate the 
first season. 
Soaking the seeds in warm water for about 
twenty-four hours aids them to germinate, but 
this is not as desirable as stratification. Fruit 
tree seedlings are large enough to graft or bud 
when one year old, except some citrous 
seedlings. 
PROPAGATION BY LAYERS OR STOLONS 
In layering, a shoot from the parent plant 
is made to throw out roots from the cambium 
layer, and is then detached from the parent. 
Usually the most successful way of encour- 
aging these roots to form is to covera part of 
the plant with soil, There are several 
methods of layering, each adapted for certain 
plants. 
~Stolons or “tips” are the young plants 
produced when some part of the parent plant 
bends down and takes root. The most 
common examples among garden fruits are the 
strawberry, black raspberry, and dewberry. 
The strawberry sets runners freely without 
any attention, but if it is desired to get runners 
rooted early, put a small stone, or handful 
of soil on the end of the runner. The end of 
the runner can be removed from the plant, 
even before it has thrown out any roots, and 
treated like a cutting. Extra strong rasp- 
berry and dewberry plants will be secured if 
the ends of the branches are covered with soil 
when they strike the ground in late summer. 
Layer all the branches one way, between 
plants in the row, so as not to interfere with 
tillage. The tip is usually left undisturbed 
until the following spring, but is ready for 
planting late that fall if necessary. 
Mound layering consists in banking soil 
around the base of the plant and leaving it 
there until the shoots have rooted. In the 
fruit garden it is practised chiefly on currants 
and gooseberries, but it may also be used to 
propagate the plum, quince, and dwarf 
apple stocks. Usually it is best to cut back 
the plant the season before layering, so as to 
induce the growth of many root shoots, thus 
making a ‘‘stool.” Earth is banked around 
the stool in the fall. By the next fall, or in 
the spring, each shoot should be well rooted, 
and may be detached from the plant. In the 
North it is best to separate the plants in the 
fall and winter them in the cellar. 
Branch layering is a good means of prop- 
67 
Michigan Agri- 
cultural College 
TO BUD OR GRAFT 
agation when it is desired to secure 
only a few plants, and not to interrupt the 
fruit bearing of the mother plant. A few 
of the outside branches are laid down, and 
covered with soil to within a foot of the tip, 
which is bent upright above the surface. At 
the point where roots should form, slit the 
bark with a knife, or severely twist the branch. 
When the covered portion is strongly rooted 
(which takes from three months to two years, 
according to the kind of fruit) it is separated. 
The quince, currant and gooseberry may be 
propagated thus. 
Grapes and dewberries are layered by 
pegging down the whole cane in the spring, 
covering certain nodes about eighteen inches 
apart, and arching the cane between these 
points. As many new plants are made as 
there are nodes covered. 
PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS 
This method differs from layering only in 
that the shoots are rooted after they are 
taken from the mother plant, instead of be- 
fore. Some fruits are readily propagated by 
soft wood cuttings in the summer, but this 
method is rarely used, except for the olive. 
The quince, currant, gooseberry, fig, mul- 
berry, olive, and grape are most easily pro- 
pagated by hardwood cuttings. In parts of 
the South having a humid climate and warm 
soil, even some of the Northern tree fruits, 
as the oriental varieties of pear, and the plum 
and cherry, are easily propagated from 
cuttings of one-year-old wood. 
Hardwood cuttings are made of dormant 
wood of the past season’s growth, in autumn 
after the leaves begin to fall, but may be taken 
at any time before the plants start into 
growth. Autumn is preferred because the 
lower ends of the cutting will become 
callused before spring, and will root better 
in that condition. In the Northern states, 
cuttings should be taken at least two months 
before they are to be set in the ground. 
Some varieties of grapes root better if a bit 
of the older wood is left on the end of the 
Gooseberry and grape 
Only two or three buds 
Plant in autumn or 
Currant cuttings planted. 
cuttings are treated similarly. 
should project above the ground. 
very early spring 
