The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-23
NEW VARIETIES OF FRUIT.
A Giant Gooseberry and Thornless Black
Observation-Disclosures in Grating.


WASHINGTON CRY, Aug. 17.-[Special
Correspondence THE department of ag
riculture is continually engaged IN trying
to discover and encourage the cultivation
of new and desirable varieties Of fruits.
Lately it has come across sort of giant
gooSeberry that grows on trees, and within
the last few days long sought prize has
been obtained from Benton Harbor, Mich,
in the shape Of really, truly thornless
blackberry The picking of this latter
delectable fruit has hitherto been inter-
fered with to some extent by the spikes
with which nature protects the branches,
but IN future, thanks TO the expected
efforts of enlightened agriculturists, peo-
pie will be able to go blackberrying without
danger Of pricking their fingers.
Experiments are at present being tried
for the first time in the grating of pecan
trees. Accidental seedlings in Texas and
New Mexico have developed nuts of this
kind as far superior to the ordinary ones
marketed as the shellbark is better than a
plgnut. Furthermore, 1t has been demon
strated that these improved varieties can
readily be perpetuated and even bettered
by grating. Only little cultivation is
necessary 10 produce pecans five or SIX
tunes the size of the usual specimens and
with shells so papery as to be easily broken
hetween the foreiinger and thumb. The
writer saw a good-sized pasteboard box
full of such samples in the office of the
United States pomologist yesterday, and
ate few to make sure of their delicious
quality. 1t is the same way with chestnuts,
which grow to the size of horse-chestnut
In some parts of the United
States. They. too, are being grated, with
view to securing the perpetuation of
their size and edible qualities. In GER
tain Illinois valley hickory nuts used to
Or. tr-f II -. H. e
and efforts are being made TO obtain a sur
vivlng plant from which TO propagate
these wonders. What wonderful thing
the process called grating" isl How
curious to see plums and cherries growing
on peach tree; or, not less marvellous,
pears depending from branch of an APP
pie trunk! Cut nick out of one of the
limbs of an orange tree and insert slip
from lemon tree, freshly taken. Lo! it
grows, and that branch produces lemons,
while the others are laden in season with
oranges. I'm accomplishing these marvels,
however, you must obey the laws of fami-
lies in trees; you cannot successfully graft
stone fruits on those which bear seeds, and
the citrus kind, such as the orange and
lemon, will only go together.
The object sought by the skilled garden
er when he makes graft, is to bring into
contact the vital parts of the slip and of
the tree on which the graft is made. Now,
the vital organ of a tree is its under skin.
The heart of the wood has nothing to do
with its life, which will often be vigorous
when the inner trunk is all eaten away
| and hollow. But beneath the bark is q
| layer of soft, cellular tissue, which gives
| birth to the fiber of the wood on the in
| side and to the fiber of the bark on the
outside. During the winter this LAYER be-
comes thin and non-productive, but when
spring comes the cells multiply and null
| tply, forming more wood inside and fore
| ing the bark outward, thus adding to the
diameter of the tree until, after few GEN.
turtles, perhaps, it becomes a monarch of
the forest. Such is the way in which the
| oak, the elm, and most other trees native
to these latitudes are developed; but the
palm and its kind grow after the manner
OF cOrnstalks, which is very different.