Excerpt from Propagation of Deciduous Fruits The question most frequently asked is, ' Why not grow all fruits and shrubs from seeds? The answer is that where improvements have been made these qualities are not transmitted through the seed but are perpetuated through the buds. Hence the necessity of using parts of the plant itself by budding, grafting, and layering. If we merely desire a peach or plum tree without regard to the variety, seeds may be used. Occasionally a variety will come true to type from the seed as does the old Heath Cling peach, but such cases are rare. In propagating fruits, therefore, seeds are used only for grow ing stock plants on which to bud or graft varieties. This is true for most tree fruits. Some stocks are profitably grown from cuttings, such as quinces, roses, grapes, and certain types of plums. The question of what kind of stocks to use even for the common deciduous fruits is a long story in itself - much too long to be narrated here with any degree of completeness. The following summary must suffice: Apple - Stocks for apples may be grown from the seeds of any variety of apple. As there is no commercial source of supply in this country aside from very limited quantities from old seedling orchards in New England referred to as Vermont crab, nurserymen procure their seeds from France and Austria. These are native seedlings known to the trade as French crab. Stock for dwarf apples consists of stool or mound layers from the Paradise apple, a natural dwarf type. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.