The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-06-04
CHAPTER 1.

CHAPTER /.
THEORY OF VEGETABLE REPRODUCTION.
ART. IV.-Infuence Of culture ead soil
on plants.
Culture and climate have appeared to
many writer's more powerful than the
graft, and they have attributed to them
the very decided changes in the secon-
diary characteristics OF trees. 1t is prin-
cipally to the force OF culture that they
attribute the sensible difference existing
between the wild and the cultivated
trees. But it is easy to see that this is
a mistake in their Judgment, and that
they attribute these differences to culture
or the graft, merely because these are
the processes which always accompany
the individuals-which undergo a change
and become improved fruit, and because
these are the means of multiplying the
number of the improved individuals.
Whereas these are mere accidents; they
have, because constantly used, been con-
sidered the causes OF the changes i'll the
fruit.
Nature gives some trees which bear
ordinary fruit and others which bear fine
fruit. The first, always being grated
when in our gardens, bears its own pc
culiar wild fruit only when found in the
woods and the cultivator who sees them
there in degraded condition concludes
that this degeneration is due to the want
of cultivation. The trees bearing fine
fruit, being seen only in state of cultl-
walton, and multiplied by the graft only,
the cultivator, ignorant of the origin of
their ancestors, judges that they owe
their improvement to the graft and the
culture which they have undergone. l
say the cultivator judges in this manner
on account of this ignorance OF the first
original tree which gave these different
results which we observe; because there
6I5e
9TH of fIisse Ss'V changes lsH s@ eccHffsd. @ They ali
speak of the changes and note the differ
ence which exists between those indi-
yiduals found in the woods and those
found in the gardens, but no one has
seen this change take place on one and
the same individual. l say all see it
through the dimness of ages, and their
conclusion is the result of conjecture
rather than of observation.
But close and continuous attention
to nature will show that these differen-
ces, which exist in two distinct individ-
uals, as, for instance, the pear of the
forest and the pear of cultivation, never
appear successfully on the same indi-
vidual. call an individual the plant
which exists on its own stock, and which
enjoys the life given it by Nature, and l
also term an Individual the collection of
all the plants which proceed from sin
gle germ, and consequently form only
one single plant, which may be multi
piled without changing its character,
either by passing successfully on to an
infinite number of stocks as a graft, or
INxyfo lNxyI1 IF cli inf a
number OF stocks of its own, having a
root in the earth, and prolonging in this
manner its own life, as we'll as that of
the species, and thus varying infinitely
the places and modes of its existence,
but always bearing in itself the prtnci-
Piles of organization received in its con-
ception.
The individual which perished on the
root where it terminated, and that which
renews for the millionth time, it may be,
it's life, in graft or slip, have a single
and common origin, and hence are one
and the same individual. This individ-
ual, though infinitely multiplied, will
always bear in the numberless subdivi-
sions of it's being the same characters
tics and the same aspect which it had in
the beginning. To illustrate, take the
sugar-cane. In India, beyond the Gan
yes, JIl0ro are several NdTlOIlOS Vi lIllS
plant which are propagated by seeds,
but in San Domingo, where it is repro
duced by slips, only one variety is
known. 1t has been cultivated there
since 1906, with different methods and a
variety of soils, and still remains un-
changed. Neither the processes of cul-
tivation nor the difference in soils have
imDroyed in the course of two centuries,
and the only reason why it has not de-
generated, is because it has always been
multiplied by cuttings.
This fact is perfectly in harmony with
the theory of the manner in which cul-
ture affects vegetables. Nutrition is the
most powerful means by which they can
be influenced in cultivation. The nour-
ishing juices, of which the earth is the
principle vehicle, are everywhere of the
same nature chemistry has proved that
! the same elements unite to form the
acorn in the oak tree and the orange i'll
the orange tree. 1t is in the different
organs of the direrse genera OF the veget-