142 . PRACTICAL PLANT PROPAGATION 



not transmitted when the variety is propagated. Hedrick has an 

 orchard of Rome Beauty Apples all propagated from cions from the 

 same one tree. There is as much variation in this orchard as one 

 would find in any orchard of one variety of fruit. Environment, 

 not heredity, governs the yield, in this case. 



Should one prefer further evidence of the uselessness of pedigree 

 stock there are many experiments which tally with the above. The 

 Missouri Experiment station carried on an experiment with ten 

 generations of Strawberries. Runners were taken from the ten 

 most productive plants of a variety and also from the ten least pro- 

 ductive. From these plants runners were taken year after year, but 

 the result was that there was no difference between the crops 

 descended from the original high yielding plants and those de- 

 scended from the lowest producer. 



However, it is believed that it is unwise to select from the poorest 

 plants because there may be in the variety some degeneration 

 either in vigor or fertility. Selection is necessary to keep the 

 variety up to its standard. 



Bud Variations. This discussion is rather confusing when one 

 reads of the great advances made in recent years in the selection 

 of Oranges, Lemons and Grape Fruits. The case is entirely differ- 

 ent. Many of the Citrus fruit trees are producing upon their 

 branches bud variations, fruits with decidedly different characters 

 than those normally exhibited by the crop of the tree upon which 

 they grew. On one tree of Washington Navel Orange in California, 

 nine types of fruit were found. Such behavior is known as "sport- 

 ing." Hugo de Vries has pointed out that plants have definite 

 periods for "sporting." Citrus fruits, Roston ferns, some Apples, 

 and many flowers are now in this stage of "mutation" or change. 

 These sports or bud variations are capable of being propagated. 

 With most cases of Apples, Pears and Strawberries the differences 

 in yield, color and size are due not to sporting or bud variation, but 

 to the nurture of the tree. These differences are not propagated. 



