Sax and Gowen: Productive and Unproductive Apple Trees 293 



A TREE OF INTERMEDIATE CHARACTER 



Between the productive type of Ben Davis apple tree (type 1) and the unproductive one 

 (type 3), the authors have found a large number of trees which must be considered as intermediate 

 in character. These they have placed in a separate group, which they call type 2. During the five 

 year period from 1914 to 1918, 233 trees of this type produced an average annual yield of 113 lbs. 

 of fruit per tree. It may be mentioned that the classification of productive and unproductive 

 trees into these three types is somewhat arbitrary, since there are numerous trees which do not 

 properly fall within any one of the three groups, but are intermediate between two of them. The 

 classification has, however, been found to serve a very practical purpose: unusual productiveness 

 is shown to be correlated with a certain type of growth. (Fig. 2.) 



In 1914, the most favorable year, 

 the average yield of the 121 trees of 

 type 1 was 283.7 pounds or more 

 than 2 barrels per tree, while the 

 average yield of the 136 trees of type 3 



was only 40.1 pounds or less than 

 a third of a barrel per tree. The 233 

 trees of type 2 averaged 190.3 pounds 

 or nearly a barrel and a half per tree 

 in 1914. Of the total number of trees 



