144 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



eight times the production of the poor- 

 est yielder, yet when we allowed these 

 parents to make runners and propagated 

 from them by these runners we found 

 just as much variation in the runners 

 produced from the one as we did among 

 those produced from the other. In other 

 words, we got equally good and equally 

 bad plants in each lot. That was con- 

 tinued after 12 years of selection. 



"In the case of the Ben Davis apples 

 we kept a record of the production of 

 individual trees in an orchard where one 

 tree was found to be uniformly a low 

 yielder and where three trees were found 

 to be uniformly high yielders. Scions 

 were taken from the low yielding and 

 from the high yielding trees. These were 

 worked on seedling roots and finally 

 planted in the orchard so that in a row 

 throughout the orchard there occurred 

 first a tree from the high yielding par- 

 ent, then a tree from the low yielding 

 parent, and so on alternating throughout 

 the row. These trees have been in bear- 

 ing after four years and in the three 

 crops produced as much variation among 

 the different trees apparently as there 

 is in any other Ben Davis orchard. We 

 have as good yielders taken from the 

 poor yielding parent as we have from 

 the others. On the other hand we have 

 as poor yielders taken from the good 

 yielding parent as we have from the 

 others. 



"I know of a few instances where at- 

 tempt has been made to secure high 

 yielding trees by selecting buds from es- 

 pecially good producing trees, but I do 

 not know of any instances that are au- 

 thentic where anything has been gained 

 by this practice. I do not want to con- 

 clude that it is impossible for bud varia- 

 tion to occur in an occasional tree in 

 which the variation expresses itself sim- 

 ply in the form of great productivness, 

 but I do believe that the fact that a tree 

 happens to have a high record as a pro- 

 ducer is no indication of the fact that 

 this quality would be transmitted to its 

 bud offspring. 



"Personally I believe that variations 

 that come from buds are due to some- 

 thing which lies within the tree or some 



stimulus applied to the bud while it is 

 forming. I do not believe that differences 

 due to environment, soil formation, de- 

 grees of fertilization, freedom from dis- 

 eases, pests, etc., are capable of being 

 transmitted to the offspring. I am not 

 ready to conclude that individual parent 

 trees might not be found which would be 

 capable of transmitting larger produc- 

 tiveness through their buds. I know of 

 no direct evidence up to date, however, 

 that we can secure higher yielding trees 

 of a given variety by this method. I 

 think further experiments should be tried 

 out by those who happen to know of es- 

 pecially high yielding specimens of fruits 

 before one could reach a positive con- 

 clusion." 



Regardiiip: Laws of Variation 



The causes of variations through he- 

 redity are not the same as the causes of 

 variation through environment. Varia- 

 tions of budded stocks seem to follow 

 environmental causes rather than heredi- 

 tary causes. When you cut scions from 

 a tree, set them on new roots and trans- 

 plant them to various soils and climates, 

 you are virtually testing that same tree 

 in a variety of environments and the 

 variations which occur from the original 

 type will be due to environment. The 

 thing to be determined is. Will changes 

 which are due to changed environment 

 become permanent; for example, will the 

 Spitzenburg, which produces an apple of 

 a certain size, shape, flavor and color in 

 the Yakima countr.y, produce the same 

 fruit when transplanted to the Ozark 

 mountains? 



The conditions under which plants will 

 vary may be summarized as follows: The 

 nature or quality of the food; the quan- 

 tity of food: the nature of the climate: 

 the nature of the competition under 

 which the plant has to survive; the na- 

 ture of enemies, such as fungi, insects, 

 animals or other injurious circumstances: 

 nature of the care given; all these in 

 relation to the nature of the organism, 

 its vigor, health, and equilibrium of all 

 its parts. 



U. P. Hedrick of the Geneva experi- 

 ment station (New York) has the follow- 



