12 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 372 



Table 7 — McIntosh Drop Data for Three Years from Individual Trees 

 IN Three Orchards 



Number of Drops 

 Studied 



Mean Number of 

 Seeds per Fruit 



Coefficient of 



Correlation, Seed 



Number and Date 



of Drop 



+ .348'+. 028* 

 + .542 + .043 

 + .318+.049 

 + .279 +.047 



+ .302 + .027 

 + .264+. 023 

 + .270+.018 



+ .444+. 018 

 + .540+.019 

 + .419+.023 

 + .332+. 027 

 + .408+.016 

 + .610+.012 

 + .572 + . 016 

 + .509+.021 



The apples were numbered or otherwise designated with India ink in August 

 and natural dropping was allowed to go to completion. The drops were gathered 

 daily and subsequently the seed content of each was determined. Certain in- 

 dividual limbs only were used in 1936 with B-7, J-10 and J-12. Otherwise the 

 entire crop was included in the determinations. 



The correlation between date of drop and seed content is evident. The co- 

 efficient values are statistically significant, although they signify only moderate 

 degrees of association for the most part. This is brought about by the inevitable 

 exceptions. Fruits with very few seeds sometimes hang on remarkably well and 

 vice versa. This would indicate that the influence of seeds or of other factors is 

 by no means constant. The seed influence was in most cases more definite in 

 1939 than in the other years. It should be pointed out that some apples must 

 have been jarred by other falling apples and perhaps forced prematurely from 

 their spurs. However, this factor was not considered sufficiently serious to alter 

 appreciably the coefficient values 



In the table above, the average number of seeds per apple varied from 6.2 

 to 9.5 depending largely on the tree and perhaps somewhat on the year. Normally, 

 fully developed seeds vary in number from none to 20 in Mcintosh apples. How- 

 ever, the author found two apples which contained more than 20 seeds. To show 

 just what a correlation of +.610 means (Table 7 — G-12, 1939) in actual seed 



