ANNUAL REPORT, 1933 51 



summer's growth showed, in all cases, a distinctly higher potash content. These 

 were the same two rows which received potash in 1931 with no apparent beneficial 

 results. However, the potash was applied in that year to the freshly plowed 

 surface, while in 1933 it was applied to the unplowed surface and harrowed in. 

 These results suggest that in the former case the potash was fixed in the soil 

 before the tree roots could take it up. These observations suggest that the 

 leaf burn and general poor condition of the trees in this orchard may be due to 

 lack of potash in the soil. The matter will be further investigated. 



The younger orchard on Mailing stocks continued to develop well. The yield 

 of Mcintosh and Wealthy on the more distinctly dwarfing stocks was small 

 except for those on Stock 4, the Dutch Doucin. This may be due to injury to the 

 root stystem from soil freezing during the winter. The root systems of these 

 stocks is small and the anchorage of the stocks is not strong enough to prevent 

 heaving. Trees on Dutch Doucin yield more than those on any other stock. 

 There are at least two weaknesses of this stock: it is not as hardy to cold as may 

 be desired, and the anchorage is not very good. The trees have thus far stood 

 up well but they are located where they are not exposed to severe winds. This 

 orchard was fertilized this year with calcium cyanamid applied about two weeks 

 before bud break with good results. 



Efforts to increase the supply of the Mailing stocks were continued. A stock 

 bed of about 1300 plants was established and about 1500 rooted layers were 

 budded or are available for budding next spring. The supply of dwarfing stock 

 in this country is very limited and efforts are planned to determine which of these 

 dwarfing stocks are most desirable and to place them in the hands of nurserymen 

 and stock growers. 



Tree Characters of Fruit Varieties. (J. K. Shaw and A. P. French.) Efforts 

 were continued to establish a nursery of cherry varieties with rather poor success. 

 For some reason buds fail to take well on Mahaleb or Japanese flowering cherry 

 stocks. This difificulty will have to be studied and overcome before variety studies 

 can be made. It is felt that climatic or weather conditions here are not fa- 

 vorable. 



Some further observations made in nurseries in connection with the usual certi- 

 fication work of the Massachusetts Fruit Growers Association's inspections of 

 nurseries for trueness-to-name over a period of years show that, while the number 

 of misnamed trees has been reduced to a very small precentage, new mixtures 

 appear occasionally. These are detected at once and do not become a contin- 

 uing trouble as in earlier years. Fruit growers run distinctly less risk of getting 

 misnamed trees if they buy from nurseries that have been inspected for trueness- 

 to-name. 



The Genetic Composition of Peaches. (J. S. Bailey and A. P. French.) 

 Breeding work was continued in the spring of 1933 and a good crop of pits was 

 obtained. About 300 seedling peaches resulting from the breeding work of 1931 

 were set out in two blocks. As a result of the 1932 breeding work there are 2415 

 trees in the nursery to be set in the orchard in the spring of 1934. From among 

 the seedlings resulting from the breeding work of 1928 a few of the best were 

 selected and propagated. There are 97 trees in the nursery propagated from 13 

 of these seedlings. Some of these will be set in the orchard in the spring of 

 1934 for trial. 



The Gold Drop variety has reniform foliar glands which is supposed to be a 

 homozygous gland condition. Among 954 seedlings of Gold Drop, selfed, there 

 appeared 213 or 22.3 per cent having globose glands (the heterozygous condition) 



