Mr. Gideon of Minnesota planted many apple seeds, and from them all raised one tree that was very fruitful, finely flavored, and able to withstand the cold Minnesota winter. This tree he multiplied by grafts and named the Wealthy apple. It is said that in giving this one apple to the world he benefited mankind to the value of more than one million dollars. It will be well to watch for any valuable bud or seed variant and never let a promising one be lost. Plants grown in this way from seeds are usually spoken of as seedlings.
[Illustration: A LUSCIOUS AND EASILY GROWN BERRY]
The following list gives the names and methods by which our common garden fruits and flowers are propagated:
_Figs_: use cuttings 8 to 10 inches long or layer. _Grapes_: use long cuttings, layer, or graft upon old vines.
_Apples_: graft upon seedlings, usually crab seedlings one year old.
_Peaches_: bud upon peach or plum seedlings.
_Blackberries_: propagate by suckers; cut from parent stem.
_Black raspberries_: layer; remove old stem.
_Red raspberries_: propagate by root-cuttings or suckers.
_Currants_ and _gooseberries_: use long cuttings (these plants grow well only in cool climates; if attempted in warm climates, set in cold exposure).
_Carnations_, _geraniums_, _roses_, _begonias_, etc.: propagate by cuttings rooted in sand and then transplanted to small pots.
Propagate fruits (grape, fig, strawberry) of various kinds; also ornamental plants. How long does it take them to root? Geraniums rooted in the spring will bloom in the fall. Do you know any one who selects seed potatoes properly? Make a careful selection of seed at the next harvest-time.
In propagating by seed, as in reproducing by buds, we select a portion of the parent plant--for a seed is surely a part of the parent plant--and place it in the ground. There is, however, one great difference between a seed and a bud. The bud is really a piece of the parent plant, but a piece of _one_ plant only, while a seed comes from the parts of two plants.
You will understand this fully if you read carefully Sections XIV-XVI. Since the seed is made of two plants, the plant that springs from a seed is much more likely to differ from its mother plant, that is, from the plant that produces the seed, than is a plant produced merely by buds. In some cases plants "come true to seed" very accurately. In others they vary greatly. For example, when we plant the seed of wheat, turnips, rye, onions, tomatoes, tobacco, or cotton, we get plants that are in most respects like the parent plant. On the other hand the seed of a Crawford peach or a Baldwin apple or a Bartlett pear will not produce plants like its parent, but will rather resemble its wild forefathers. These seedlings, thus taking after their ancestors, are always far inferior to our present cultivated forms. In such cases seeding is not practicable, and we must resort to bud propagation of one sort or another.