The Columbus journal., 1901-05-01

To the Farmers Review: There are
parties who have been long engaged IN
horticulture who claim that q fruit
ing vieor cannot be bred into . straw
berry plant. That runners from one
plant will fruit just as well ~ an
other IL they are equally as well ma
nured and cultivated. Let us look into
this matter for a moment and see II
this Is not great mistake. We Will
better understand this II We compare
the plant with something we are famil-
lar with. and for this purpose a thor
oughbred COW, like that of l. H. HOOD
of Lowell. Mass. understand TINS
COW is valued somewhere above $6O.-
900. and that she has the greatest but
ter record yet made. Her value lies
In the fact that she has had developed
In her body q system Of glands which
take from the foods that pass through
her all the butter fat 1t contains. ana
has the capacity to consume an I'M
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 it into tallow and muscle for
meat. The more you feed such COW
the fatter 1t would make her, but you
could not get a material increase In
the flow of milk because it would 60
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,
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 bum
dies which 60 to the production OF
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 frrit-producing organ
ism that its strength all goes to max
ing fruit, while another, badly bred,
80 as to have its wood-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
don't 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 we
use.
In propagattng strawberry plants We
allow runner to go out and form a
new plant and eventually acquire roots
Of its own, and then the wire" dies.
but it is identically the same as the
plant from which the runner comes.
1t is the division Of the vascular sys-
tenn of the mother plant"
The Rhode Island experiment sta
tion bought plants from a nurseryman
grown on the hit-or-miss system, and
grew them all under the same condi-
tions, but the fruit production varied
from about three grams on one plant
to 1873 grams in another, showing that
one plant had come from a well-devel-
oped plant, while the fruit-producing
vascular system in the other had been
weakened or destroyed, and by divid-
ing it We got unproductive fruiters.
but runner-making plants, while on
the other We got fruit-producing plants
and few runners.
The fruit growers are waking up to
these points and will soon understand
that the fruit-producing quality of
plant comes down from the ancestry
just as much as the milk glands in the
COW. and they will breed their plants
with equal carer. NJ. Kellogg, Three
Rivers, Michigan.