New York Ageicultural Experiment Station. 465 



trees in some of the progenies is too small to make the data very 

 valuable but yet the figures are interesting and suggestive. 



Table II. — Average Height of Tree, Diameter of Trunks, and Quantity 



OF Fruit. 



Crosses. 



Number 

 of trees. 



Ben Davis X Esopus 



Ben Davis X Green Newtovm 



Ben Davis X Jonathan 



Ben Davis X Mcintosh 



Ben Davis X Mother 



Esopus X Ben Davis 



Esopus X.Jonathan 



Mcintosh X Lawver 



Ralls X Northern Spy 



Rome X Northern Spy 



Sutton X Northern Spy 



Hubbardston (Selfed) 



4 



13 



11 



11 



20 



29 



2 



1 



9 



1 



5 



Height 

 of trees. 



Feet. 

 10.5 

 10.8 

 10.4 

 9.8 

 9.1 

 10.0 

 10.5 

 10.0 

 10.1 

 10.0 

 11.2 



8.2 



Diameter 

 of trunks. 



Inches. 

 3.1 

 3.2 

 3.3 

 2.9 

 2.8 

 2.9 

 2.9 

 4.0 

 3.0 

 3.5 

 3.3 



2.6 



Quantity 

 of fruit. 



Pounds. 

 48.5 

 50.4 

 67.3 

 40.7 

 43.3 

 32.0 

 9.5 

 85.0 

 35.7 

 91.0 

 12.0 



Prepotency. — In the past, horticulturists, in common with 

 breeders of other plants, and of animals as well, have designated 

 certain individuals, varieties in the case of fruits, as " pre- 

 potent." Prepotency could be ascribed much more naturally to 

 individuals before it was known that characters are quite inde- 

 pendent in transmission, although there is still question in some 

 quarters as to whether potency is a property of a unit character 

 or of all the characters in an individual. Thus because of the 

 great number of their named offspring we have commonly 

 thought the Ben Davis, Fameuse, Oldenburg and Blue Pearmain, 

 as examples, to be " prepotent." In the light of present informa- 

 tion it is very doubtful if such prepotency exists in the sense of 

 ability to impress all characters on the offspring. 



It is generally agreed, though, that prepotency exists as to 

 characters — that is, that there are marked variations in potency. 

 Accepting this as a fact it must be conceded at once that a 

 variety of apples may be prepotent in two or more characters 

 which may be transmitted to the progeny quite independently of 

 each other. If such be the case we should expect the offspring 

 of some crosses of apples to resemble one parent more than the 



