INDIVIDUALITY OF FRUITS 



VV. T. MACOUN, HORTICULTURIST, CENTRAL CANADA EXPT. FARM. 



THE Stock breeder has for a great many 

 years paid especial attention to the 

 individual animal in breeding for size, shape 

 and markings, and for flesh and milk. Just 

 as satisfactory results should be obtained in 

 improving the strain of a variety of fruit, 

 and although comparatively little has yet 

 been done by horticulturists in this respect 

 with fruits, much has been accomplished 

 with flowers and vegetables. It is now 

 recognized by the best authorities that each 

 bud of a tree has individual characteristics 

 which separate it from all other buds, and 

 although the differences in buds are in most 

 cases so slight that it is impossible to detect 

 them, yet in some instances they may be 

 quite marked. 



Fruit growers have often noticed that one 

 tree or bush is more productive than an- 

 other, or bears larger, more highly colored 

 or better flavored fruit. Take as an exam- 

 ple the Fameuse apple. When this excel- 

 lent old variety first bore fruit several hun- 

 dred years ago one tree produced all the 

 Fameuse apples there were at that time. 

 Some apples on that original tree were pro- 

 bably not as highly colored as others, al- 

 though exposed to the same amount of 

 light. Some branches, probably, were 



more heavily laden than others, although 

 there was no apparent reason why they 

 should be. On some branches the fruit 

 was larger though as well loaded as others. 

 In time scions were cut from that tree and 

 grafted, and a new generation of Fameuse 

 trees was the result. Were the trees thus 

 produced identical in vigor and productive- 

 ness, and was the fruit borne on each of 

 them exactly similar in every respect? We 

 believe that they were not. Every bud on 

 every tree of every generation of Fameuse 

 apple trees had individual characteristics, 

 and although the differences were barely 

 enough marked to see, there were doubtless 

 manv fine shades of variation. 



It does not need a great stretch of imagi- 

 nation to see that if such changes can be 

 made as have been made in live stock, flow- 

 ers, vegetables and other economic plants, 

 by careful selection, that if, when that first 

 generation of Fameuse apple trees began to 

 bear, scions had been taken from the most 

 productive tree bearing the finest colored 

 apples of the best size, that in the next gen- 

 eration of trees there would be at least a 

 slight improvement, and if this selection had 

 been carried on down to the present time we 

 should have a better Fameuse than we have 

 to-day. This selection, however, has not 

 been carried out, and about all that has been 

 done, in a few cases, is to graft from trees 

 bearing highly colored fruit, but as yet we 

 have practically no reliable information in 

 Canada as to whether the results have been 

 satisfactory. 



In small orchards, where the fruit is in- 

 tended for home consumption, the indi- 

 viduality of different trees is more noticed 

 than in large orchards, where the record of 

 each tree is not brought so prominently be- 

 fore the grower. The effect of the stock 

 on the productiveness of the tree and char- 

 acteristics of the fruit is not yet well under- 

 stood. Whatever may be the influence of 

 the stock there is no doubt that each variety 

 maintains most of its individual qualities. 



At the Central Experimental Farm the 

 yields ape kept from each individual tree in 

 the orchard, making it possible to tell at the 

 end of a certain period just what each tree 

 has borne. It has been found that trees 

 planted at the same time, and growing under 

 practically the same conditions as other trees 

 of the same variety, vary widely in produc- 

 tiveness. Some trees also bear a medium 

 crop every year, while others bear a heavy 

 crop every other year. 



In the following table will be found the 

 yields of trees of four varieties of apples for 

 the past six years, with the total yield per 



