The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1872-12-21
Varieties of Fruit Tend 20 sSun Out.

\ correspondent sends the following to
the Boston Cultivator
1t was for long time the prevail
ing opinion that when good variety of
fruit was originated from seed, it might be
continued, by grating and budding for
ever. About forty years ago, however,
Thomas Andrew Knight, the distin gulsh-
ed president Of the Horticultural Society
Of London, published an essay on liz tran
slctions, tending to overthrow this opinion
and to establish the doctrine that all
varieties are of limited duration.
. The theory advanced by knight is as
follows:
All the constitutional vigor or proper
les possessed by any variety of fruit are
shared at the same time by all the plants
that can he made rom the buds ogthat vari-
Y. Whetl 81 by grating, budding or other
modes of propagation. In similar terms,
all tue plants or trees of any particular
kind of pear or apple, being only parts of
one original tree itself of limited duration.
It follows as the parent trees, all the
others must also soon after die. mo
trees of any variety can be made to pro
duce blossoms or fruit till the original
tree of that variety has attained the age of
puberty and under the ordinary modes
Of propagation, by,graits and buds, all be-
come subject, a. no very distant period,
t. the debilities and diseases of old age.
THIS theory of knights, which showed
considerable observation and contained
truth, was received with favor and ap-
plause, and was doing much good till Dc
Caudole, a vegetable Psychologist, came
forward and combatted the theory. va
rites, says the distinguished vegetable
physloligIst, will endure and remain per-
manent so long as man chooses to take
care OF them, as is evident from the contin
u5d existence, TO this day, of sorts the
most ancient of these which have been
described in books.-By negligence, or
through successive bad seasons, they may
become diseased, but care and culture
Will restore them, and retain ,hem to all
appearance forever See Downing :
Fruit Book. Other distinguished writers
including Downing, fell in with De Cam
dcte's views and supplanted knights theo
ry,to tho great injury of the orchard,
1t may be easily demonstrated that
irult trees as well rs potatoes, undergo a
regulsr course of change, from infancy to
age. In giving a history OF life of a fruit
tree, say an apple tree, | will begin at
the beginning, that Is, with the embryo,
j. consists of short axis or stem, crowned
with two or more undeveloped leaves, or,
IN other words, with bud. Ia germina-
ton the bud end rises upward as ii to
seek The light or air; the root end turnes
constantly from the light and buries itself
in the soil. The axis or stem, therefore,
possesses a sort OF polarity; is composed
Of two counterpart systems, viz; de-
scending AXIS or stem The point of union
or base If the two is termed the crown,
neck or collar. The young embryo, hav.
ing begun its. development, keeps branch
ing and growing in height and it would
seem that there was nothing to stop its
growth but external circumstances.
Sooner or later, however it changes its
modes of development and bears flowers
and fruit. 1t keeps on growing, neyerthe-
less, in highth, though not so rapidly,
tilliit at:ains the utmost height, OF which