234 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



tree for that time. It will be seen that 

 some trees haye yielded two to four times 

 as much as others. The yield is given in 

 gallons rather than in barrels, to avoid large 

 fractions. 



It is worth mentioning that of the 17 

 Wealthy trees in the table only 7 bore fruit 

 in 1903, and of those that fruited the tree 

 which had borne regularly during the past 

 four years again bore a good crop in 1903 : 



AjPPLES— WEALTHY— PLANTED 1896. 



APPLES— GREENING — ^PLiANTED 1892. 



APPLBS^MoMAlHON WHITE— PLANTED 1888 



Experiments are being conducted at the 

 Experimental Farm by top grafting with 

 scions from productive and unproductive 

 trees, to determine how far the productive- 

 ness and unproductiveness of the trees is 

 constant. Root grafted trees are also being 

 grown for this purpose. 



In order that fruit growers might learn, 

 by personal experience, of the great varia-' 

 tion in individual trees of the same variety, 

 a co-operative experiment was begun in 

 1903. On application to the horticulturist, 

 six pieces of zinc, bearing six consecutive 

 numbers, were sent to each person. These 

 pieces of zinc when received were to be at- 

 tached to six bearing trees of a single 

 variety of apple, pear, plum, or peach, the 

 trees to be the same age, and growing under 

 the same conditions of soil and culture. A 

 record of the yield of each tree was to be 

 kept for at least five years. A number of 

 fruit growers in different parts of Canada 

 have already joined this co-operative test, 

 and it is hoped that more persons will de- 

 sire to take part in this experiment. 



If scions from productive trees will pro- 

 duce productive trees 'when grafted, and if 

 scions from unproductive trees will produce 

 trees which are poor croppers, it is very im- 

 portant that scions should be taken from the 

 best yielding trees. As grafting will, in ail 

 probability, become much more general 

 among fruit growers in the near future, the 

 importance of knowing that trees vary 

 widely in productiveness is easily seen. 



