The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1904-04-08
Che Farm and Grove.
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TREE PROPAGATION.

TREE PROPAGATION.
With the exception of the plum
and persimmon none of our common
tree fruits are Indigenous to the AM
erican continent. Orange, peach, APP
pie, pear, all are importations,
though the former, introduced by
the earliest Spanish explorers, has
grown in a wild state in the Florida
hammocks so long as to be common
ly believed to be a true native.
Not only are these fruits all of for
ign origin, but the common meth
DDS Of propagation are as foreign to
the habits of the trees, as the latter
themselves are to the land they now
inhabit. This fact is the result OF
that property of these fruits which
renders them incapable of perpetu-
ating their own qualities from seeds.
| They do not come true to seed. The
'ruit does not much resemble that of
the tree producing the seed. The
planting of seed, therefore, merely
assures the growth of u tree, but Of
ters no basis for foretelling the char
acter of it's fruit.
The tree resulting from the devel-
opment of a seed, is a Seeding. This
seeding becomes the basis for the
propagation of trees the properties OF
which shall be true to the will of the
propagation. Its use depends on the
strife of nature to perpetuate proper
ties, or to develope improved quail
ties. A very limited number of seed
lngs produce fruit rs good, or better,
than that of the tree from which the
seed came. Desirable fruits Originat-
ing in this way are perpetuated by
budding or grating. This process is
simply transferring growing buds Of
the tree desired, to the growing wood
of the tree whose product it is in
tended to change.
StocEs.ar the trees, usually cut oil
lust below the surface of the ground,
10 which the growing buds are trans
ferred. The result is a tree produc-
ing fruit with the properties of the
fruit of the tree from which the bud
was taken. Although the fruit fol-
lows the character of the bud, the
tree itself is very materially infiu-
enced by the nature of the stock On
which it grows. This influence is
particularly noticed in the matter of
hardness, and resistance to cold, the
earliness of maturity, or frutting,
longevity, and susceptibility to GER
tain diseases.
Good illustrations of these effects
are found in the greater hardness
and the early bearing of the orange
budded on the G trifoliata stocks, the
comparative immunity to foot-rot il
trees resulting from the use of the
Florida sour orange as a stock, and
the greater hardness and longevity
of peach trees budded on native plum
stocks.
1t is particularly worthy of note
that the budded tree develops and
retains the root system of the stock
used, rather than that of the tree
furnishing the buds. Stocks of diff
erent varieties of even the same kind
of tree vary very much in the char
acter of their root systems. The or
ange is a good example. The soul
orange is particularly deep rooted
The sweet orange on the other hand,
is distinctly surface rooted, its feed
ing roots apparently developing at
the expense of the tap-root. The po-
melo furnishes a stock with some OF
the advantages of the sweet stock,
but with root system closely resem-
bling that of the sour stock. The
natural inference is, that for dry To-
calities. or where the natural water
supply is deep, the sour stock pos
sesses advantages possessed by neith-
er of the others. Budding should be
performed when the sap is in full
! flow in the tree to be used as a stock,
and the buds should be entirely dor
mant,
Hvbridizing is becoming more and
more a recognized method of propa-
cation. Several standard fruits, es-
pecially of the orange, originated by
fine natural cross-fertilization OF
quite distinct types. These have of
ten been perpetuated for commercial
purposes by budding. The artificial
use of hybridizing as a method OF
propagation, by transferring the pol
len of one species to the flowers OF
another, is the basis of the recent eff
forts at development of hardy or
ange tree, by hybridizing the sweet
orange and the deciduous Q. trifolia-
IA. One of the products of the first
cross, the tangelo, already bids fail
to become commercially important
ne a hardy substitute for lemons and
, lines, productive far north of the
: heretofore accepted habitat of citrus
trees. These results indicate that
| bybridizing must hereafter be added