STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 73 



some apples will be round, others flat, of the same variety. 

 This makes box packing most difficult. 



Too little thought and attention have been given to the propa- 

 gation of trees with reference to obtaining definite quality, as 

 constitutional vigor, character of growth, and productiveness. 



Twenty-one years ago, I was asked to address a nurserymen's 

 convention where I advocated the value of propagating nursery 

 trees, from the selected buds of well known bearing trees of 

 the different varieties that had a record of years of production 

 where their quality and habits were well known, claiming that 

 by such means, a far more valuable and productive class of 

 trees might be obtained. 



A very large majority of the nurserymen present were op- 

 posed to the proposition and said that a bud was a bud, and a 

 scion was a scion, and it mattered little from what source it 

 came, it would make just as good a tree. They gave no con- 

 sideration whatever to the individuality of trees, or to the dif- 

 ferences or individuality of the buds on the dififerent parts of 

 a single tree. 



That great variations in trees exist, is plainly to be seen in 

 any orchard. There are no two trees that are alike. They 

 differ in growth, in form, in productiveness, and their differ- 

 ences may be closely seen by observing the trees in any row 

 of the same variety in any orchard and under the same general 

 care and management. 



For many years one of the largest apple orchards in the 

 United States, planted and growing in the rich soil of Kansas, 

 did not yield above an average of 22 barrels of apples per acre, 

 and after more than a quarter of a century of such low produc- 

 tion the orchards are cleared, and the land again devoted to 

 wheat. On the other hand, there are orchards that are pro- 

 ducing an average of six barrels to a tree, and 170 to 180 bar- 

 rels to the acre. The present season individual trees have pro- 

 duced from 16 to 19 barrels of apples. It is reported that in 

 New Hampshire, F. H. Gowen of Stratham picked 17 barrels 

 from one tree, while George Gowen of the same place picked 

 19 barrels from one tree. 



These illustrations show the great difference that is foimd 

 in the production of fruit. The general practice among nur- 

 serymen is to take their buds or scions from the young trees 

 grown in their nurseries to work on their seedling stocks. 



