er, the pecan tree differs in no way from any of our
other classes of fruits. No one would today be so foolish as to try to
get a good peach or apple orchard by planting the seeds of these fruits;
but this is just what a great many people have been trying to do with
pecans.

This attempt to produce pecan orchards from seed has been the origin of
the 50,000 trees noted in the census above. Now that we have these
seedling pecan trees, are they of any value at all? Can we make anything
out of them whatever or must we cut them down and charge up the expenses
to the account of experience, and start over again with standard
varieties of budded and grafted trees? Years of time and quantities of
money have been spent in producing these beautiful but comparatively
valueless seedling trees. However, they are far from being a total loss,
for in those deep roots and stalwart trunks and spreading branches,
there are latent possibilities in abundance. If by some magic power like
that of Aladdin's wonderful lamp told of in the "Tales of the Arabian
Nights," we could transform these seedling trees in a single night to
standard varieties, we would enrich every owner of pecan trees by
hundreds of dollars and the aggregate wealth of the state would be
increased by millions.

For several years I have been in search of Aladdin's wonderful lamp to
enlighten me how to effect this felicitous transformation. Like
Aladdin's quest of old the search has been long and wearisome and has
led me a tedious road through many vexatious disappointments, but at
last I have found the lamp! I have in my power the magic by which a
worthless seedling pecan tree can be transformed into a productive
standard variety. This magic talisman is simply

_Patch-Budding._

Every kind of budding is magical. Is it not wonderful to make a crab
apple tree produce Stayman or Grimes Golden apples or a quince bush
produce luscious Duchess pears? Is it not strange that the sap from the
same root can produce red apples on one branch, yellow ones on another,
and russets on a third? How does it come that one twig can be made to
produce sour apples and the next Paradise Sweets? Strange! Wonderful!!
but True!!! It is all owing to the fact that the sap of a tree is a
homogeneous substance and that it is the bud through which it passes
that stamps the individuality upon it whether it shall be a crab or a
Grimes Golden. If we make all the buds of the tree of the Grimes
character,