1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
59 
all can be propagated in this manner, but fortunate¬ 
ly it is generally the case that the small neat kinds 
suited to small grounds, that grow most freely. 
Knowing that nurserymen have houses especially 
for the propagation of conifers, amateurs are 
deterred from attempting it in a small way. I have 
grown a few each year, for several years, as it is 
very convenient to have a stock of nice little plants 
to give away, or to use in exchanging with one’s 
friends. Arbor Vitses are among the easiest of 
trees to raise from cuttings. The common Arbor 
Vitae is generally popular, but it is a waste of ground 
to grow this, if the 
Siberian and Pyramidal Arbor Vitses 
can be had, as these varieties are quite as hardy 
as the original, and very much handsomer. As an 
illustration of the ease with which these Arbor 
Vitses take root, last fall a friend sent me three 
smal^bits in a letter, for a name ; though they had 
been cut two or three days, I stuck them in the 
sand of the greenhouse bench, and all three took 
root. To manage a quantity of cuttings, I use 
what the florists call a “flat,” which is a box about 
3 inches deep, made by dividing a soap-box. This 
is filled with sand, and in November cuttings 
about three inches long set in thickly, and the box 
put in the cellar until spring, taking care that it 
does not get dry during the winter. In the spring 
the boxes are set where they will be shaded during 
the heat of the day, and where they can be watered 
as needed, and in a few months the majority of the 
cuttings will be rooted. Other kinds can only be 
rooted by the application of heat, and if one has 
no greenhouse, a hot-bed can be made to answer. 
While some species root readily, others of the same 
genus do so with difficulty ; sometimes a variety 
cannot be propagated by cuttings, while the type 
will readily grow in that way, and vice versa. All 
these matters can only be learned by experiment. 
Blackberries in Indiana in 1874. 
BY STEELE BROTHERS, LA PORTE, LN'D. 
In accordance with the request of the Editor, we 
send some items about the varieties of Blackberries 
cultivated around here. 
There are but two varieties much cultivated ; the 
Kittatinny and the Snyder. There are some Lawton 
and a few Wilson’s Early. All varieties bore 
abundantly this year. But it was the first full crop 
in three years. Last year all varieties were so 
much injured by the winter, that there were very 
few berries. In 1873 the Kittatinny did not bear at 
all. The Snyder not half a crop. The Snyder is a 
trifle more hardy than the Kittatinny, but not 
'perfectly hardy with us. On our place they were 
killed the winter of 1871-72. And were generally 
so badly injured in the winter of 1872-73, that they 
did not bear half a crop. They were not killed 
outright like the Kittatinny, but grew and blossom¬ 
ed in the spring; more than half the canes, before 
the crop was grown, died, and the berries dried up. 
We pieked the past season from two rows of 
Wilson’s Early, each about 275 feet long, a little 
over 10 bushels of berries. Being so much larger 
and finer looking than any other kind, they sell 
very readily. But after people get acquainted with 
them, they almost always prefer the Kittatinny on 
account of its superior flavor. The Kittatinny, 
with us, will hardly average as large as the Law- 
ton, neither is it here quite equal to it in flavor, 
when both are fully ripe. But the Kittatinny has 
the advantage of being eatable two or three days 
Before it is thoroughly ripe, while the Lawton is 
very sour until it is just ready to drop oil the bush. 
The Snyder is small, not averaging over two-thirds 
the size of the Kittatinny, nor is it equal to that in 
flavor. This we have proved by the following trial: 
A young man who had known the Snyder from 
the first, was always praising its superior flavor. 
To test the matter, we picked a quantity of each 
kind, Kittatinny and Snyder, being careful to have 
them as nearly alike as possible in size, shape, and 
ripeness. We had him try them without knowing 
which was which. He decided that the Kittatinny 
was very much the best berry. And this is the 
general opinion, if prices are any criterion. This 
season the Kittatinny sold readily at 15 cents per 
box, when the Snyder only brought from 10 to 121 
cents. Some claim that the Snyder has not so 
much core as the Kittatinny. But taking both of 
equal size and thoroughly ripe, the difference in 
core is so small as not to be perceptible, except to 
a very critical judge. The Snyder has one advan¬ 
tage over the Kittatinny, it is a more vigorous 
grower, for the first two or three years. This, if 
set out in the spring, will bear a good many berries 
the next year. But the Kittatinny will not do 
much under two years. The perfect blackberry for 
us, has not yet been brought here. What we want 
is a berry that is equal in size and quality to the 
Kittatinny, and perfectly hardy. If it should be 
thornless, so much the better. 
We stop our blackberry canes at from 3 to 4 feet 
from the ground, and never had any trouble with 
premature blossoming. We do this once, and then 
let the side branches grow all the season. The 
following spring we cut these back to about a foot. 
The Respiration and Growth of Plants. 
BY PROP. ASA GRAT. 
In the Gardeners’ Chronicle of Nov. 28, we 
have at length a clear and good abstract of 
Corenwinder’s paper on Respiration and Digestion 
in Plants. Respiration, in plants as in animals, is 
an oxidation of the carbonaceous matters, and goes 
on continually, increasing or diminishing, however, 
with the activity or repose of the plant or animal. 
It is manifested, and its amount measured, by the 
giving off of carbonic acid gas. Digestion or as¬ 
similation is the reverse process as respects the 
storing up of carbonaceous matters, through the 
decomposition of carbonic acid, and is evinced and 
measured by the evolution of oxygen gas. In 
growing buds and shoots, and in forming foliage, 
the process of respiration is the most active. The 
plant—as we should put it—is then doing active 
work, and work means using up of material and 
force. Just as it costs the farmer a part of his 
crop to raise it and take it to market, so it costs 
the plant a part of its product to move and re-ar¬ 
range its particles when it grows. This work is at¬ 
tended by the giving out of carbonic acid in in¬ 
creased amount, for the same reason that the 
breathing is quickened by running up a hill. In 
the developed foliage, outspread in the light, the 
work of digestion or assimilation is the principal 
thing ; and the result is the making of material for 
growth. This work also uses up some already 
formed material, converting its carbon into carbonic 
acid ; but this loss is unpereeived, being masked 
and overbalanced by a far greater gain. For every 
one particle of vegetable matter which is now de¬ 
composed into carbonic acid and water and given 
out, probably twenty or thirty are recomposed in 
the assimilating process out of carbonic acid and 
water, and the oxygen of the former given out; so 
that the net result as to the air is the setting free 
of oxygen largely, as to the plant, the increase of 
vegetable matter. 
Besides the carbonaceous elements, there is the 
nitrogenous matter and the phosphates, and the 
like. These play the most important part in growth 
and in all vegetable action. They are accordingly 
most abundant in young and growing parts, or in 
parts preparing for future growth. A Lilac leaf 
dried in April was found to have nearly 28 per cent 
of nitrogenous matter to nearly 68 of carbonaceous ; 
a Maple leaf at the same season as much as 41 per 
cent of the former to 53 per cent of the latter; but 
in October the nitrogenous matter of the Lilac-leaf 
was reduced to less than 9 per cent, of the Maple- 
leaf to less than 15 per cent. The phosphoric acid 
had decreased in a similar way. These precious 
materials, having served their purpose in the young 
and growing parts, bad been economized, had been 
largely transferred to other new parts, and finally 
accumulated and condensed in fruits and seeds, to 
provide for the nutrition of the next generation, 
: or, in the grower’s hands to serve for the nutrition 
of another order of beings. The practical moral is, 
that young herbage and foliage are more nutritious, 
as well as more palatable than when old, as we well 
appreciate in the cases of a salad, beet-top6, 
spinach, asparagus, etc. ; but that fruits and grains 
offer similar nourishment in a much more con¬ 
densed form. 
The Stock and Cion—Peaches. 
Upon more than one occasion we have ex¬ 
pressed our belief that much of the variation in 
quality, size of fruit, and time of ripening, 
that we see in different specimens of the- same 
variety, is due to the character of the stock 
upon which that variety was budded or grafted. 
Tiffs is not a mere matter of scientific interest, 
but it is a question of dollars and cents to every 
orchardist in the country, and more especially 
to the grower of peaches, to whom more than 
to the one who raises apples and pears, the dif¬ 
ference of a few days in the time of ripening is 
of the greatest importance, and may decide the 
success of his season’s business. In July last, 
we published important testimony upon this 
point from Col. Wilkins, the great peach grow¬ 
er of Maryland, and since then other facts have 
come to our knowledge which point in the 
same direction. A gentleman of wide experi¬ 
ence in pomology, and an accurate observer, 
who, though he has withdrawn from active 
life, still continues his experiments with fruits, 
raised among other new seedlings a peach 
which he especially desired us to see; he for¬ 
warded us specimens of his favorite seedling, 
and in the accompanying note remarked, “The 
samples I send you are from a tree originally a 
Hale’s, which I budded in ’72; it is now a beau¬ 
tiful bearer, equal in form and vigor to its par¬ 
ent ; but strange to say, the fruit ripens at 
least three weeks earlier. So much for the influ¬ 
ence of the stock upon the graft.”—This led to 
a further discussion of the subject in our cor¬ 
respondence, and we quote the following from 
among other matters of interest contained in 
the letters of the writer, whose name, were we 
at liberty to give it, would be recognized as one 
to whom pomology is largely indebted. He 
•writes: “ That the stock influences the time 
of ripening is most true, especially wdien the 
buds or grafts arc set upon established trees. 
An acquaintance of mine, a good observer, and 
a nurseryman on a small scale, (Mr. Boss, of 
Westfield, N. J.), showed me two apple trees, 
side by side, which he had grafted with two 
pieces of the same cion; the variety was the 
King apple of New Jersey, which was then 
very rare, and having but one cion he cut it in 
two and grafted one-half with each. The 
stocks when grafted upon were some 3 or 4 
inches in circumference ; note the result: One 
of the grafted trees ripened its fruit six weeks 
earlier than the other! I have seen the trees 
and the fruit, and am sure that the old gentle¬ 
man was to be perfectly relied upon.” Our 
correspondent says further: “In regard to 
your views about grafting or budding upon im¬ 
proved stock, that is the result of good seed in¬ 
stead of the wild Virginia seedling, I am de¬ 
cidedly of your opinion—I use nothing else; 
still I cannot go so far as to establish the differ¬ 
ence between cling-stones and free-stones for 
stocks. * * * To resume, I would sav 
place a sound , well matured bud or graft upon a 
healthy stock, and one which as near as can be 
ascertained, of the same season of blossoming 
and ripening.” There are other matters of in- 
