Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1901-05-18
FARM AND GARDEN.
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO
A0RIcuLTuRlSTS
Some Ur-to-Dsse Hints About Cuitivs-
tian OF the Soil and Yields Thereof
Horticuiturs. Nitiruitars and Eiorieai
tnre.
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difference OF Froitage La Plants
To the Farmers Review: There are
parties who have been long engaged in
horticulture who claim that fruit
ing yigor cannot be bred into straw
berry plant. That runners from one
pant will fruit just as well as an
other II they are equally as well ma
nured and cultivated. Let us look into
this matter for moment and see II
this Is not a great mistake. We will
better understand this IL we compare
the plant with something we are famil-
lar with, and for this purpose a thor
oughbred COW, like that of l. III. Hood
OF Lowell. Mass. ! understand this
cow is valued somewhere above $780,
coo, and that she has the greatest but
Ter record yet made. Her value lies
I'm the fact that she has had developed
In her body a system Of glands which
take from the foods that pass through
her all the butter fat 1t contains. and
has the capacity to consume an Inn
mense amount OF food. Another strain
Of cattle bred for beef do not have
the milk glands. but do possess others
which appropriate the same elements
and turn 1t into tallow and muscle for
meat. The more you feed such COW
the fatter 1t would make her. but you
could not get material increase In
the flow OF milk because it would so
to the beef-producing glands.
Now this is Just the same with
plants. They have the same organism
| OF glands. but in this case scientists
| call them vascular bundles" We have
a system OF each for producing pollen,
1 fruit flesh, wood. bark, etc. Now the
| fruit-producing vascular system Is
/ very sensitive, and. like any other
/ organism of the body, is developed by
proper foods and manipulation, as by
! restriction to prevent exhaustion by
/ excessive use. These vascular bun
dies which go TO the production OF
4 seeds and fruit flesh are, like the
| glands in the COW, the result OF sys-
tematic selection OF those which make
the best development and rejecting
those which fail to make the desired
improvement. At the same time we
feed the plant with those elements
which go TO fruit For instance. we
know that phosphoric acid and potash
are elements that cannot be dispensed
with in seed and fruit production,
while nitrogen stimulates the WOOD
and runner producing part Of the vas
cular system, and so by this system
of selection and rejection, through
many generations, we get plants so de-
veloped in the fruit-producing organ
ism that It's strength all goes to max
ing fruit, while another, badly bred,
so as to have its woed-producing vas
cular system abnormally developed,
you would get a vast amount of run
ners and leaves without correspond
ing increase in fruit. In this case
high tillage and manuring does not
pay, because it makes something We
lont want We are after excessive
fruitage, and not host OF runners
and leaves. So we can see how impor-
tant 1t is that we should know the
pedigree or history of every plant w'
use.
In propagating strawberry plants WI
allow a runner to go out and form
new plant and eventually acquire root
Of its own, and then the wire dies
but it is tdentically the same as th'
, plant from which the runner comes
II Is the division OF the vascular sys
tenn of the mother plant"
, The Rhode Island experiment sta
ton bought plants from a nurserymai
grown on the hit-or-miss system, ant
grew them all under the same condi
tions, but the fruit production varie,
from about three grams on one plan
, | to 1873 grams in another, showing tina
one plant had come from a well-devel
, oped plant, while the fruit-producin
, vascular system in the other had beel
weakened or destroyed, and by divid
Ing 1T we got unproductive fruiters
but runner-making plants, while o.
: the other we got fruIt-producing plant
and few runners.
The fruit growers are waking up I
these points and will soon understan
that the fruit-producing quality of
Plant comes down from the ancestr
just as much as the milk glands in th
COW, and they will breed their plant
! with equal carer. NJ Kellogg, Thre
Rivers, Michigan.
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