ANNUAL REPORT, 1943-44 57 



The orchard of 900 trees planted in 1939 has suffered from magnesiuni deficiency 

 during the last three seasons. This is being corrected and at the present writing 

 the trees are growing vigorously. Many of the trees bloomed in the spring of 

 1944, but the frost of May 19 ruined the crop except in the more elevated part 

 of the orchard. 



Trees on semi-dwarfing rootstocks are in demand b\- commercial growers who 

 do not like tall trees. They will give acre yields equal to or higher than trees 

 on seedling rootstocks, and growing and harvesting costs should be less. 



One new cooperative orchard was planted in the spring of 1944. 



Lethal Incompatibilities Between Clonal Stocks and Varieties of Apples. 



(J. K. Shaw and L. Southwick.) A paper reporting the results in 1943 appears 

 in the Proceedings of the American Society for Horticultural Science, Volume 44. 

 The combinations of the rootstock Spy 227 with various strains and varieties 

 developed in the spring of 1944 as had been anticipated from their condition last 

 fall. Shotwell Delicious, Paragon (Iowa strain), "Paragon L," Yates, and three 

 strains of Mcintosh are making normal growth; Blaxtayman is growing but is 

 below normal; Stayman, Stamared, Winesap, Delicious, Starking, Richared, 

 Golden Delicious, Arkansas (Mass. strain). Mammoth Black Twig (Iowa strain), 

 Turley, Arkansas Black, and five strains of Mcintosh including Blackmack 

 are dead or dying. "Paragon L" is an unknown variety resembling but distinct 

 from Arkansas and Paragon. A few Spy 227 stocks budded to strains that have 

 failed, on which the bud failed to start, are now dead; while a few on which the 

 bud of a successful strain failed to grow have put out new growth. Apparently 

 the roots of Spy 227 budded to the "lethal" strains are dead or nearly so, and this 

 root failure is the reason for the death or decline of the trees. 



Winesap, Stayman, and one of the Mcintosh strains, all of which fail on Spy 

 227, are growing vigorously on the two Spy 227 seedling clonal stocks, 227-2 

 and 227-12. 



Study of Bud Sports of the Mcintosh Apple. (J. K. Shaw and L. Southwick.) 

 Several of the so-called bud sports fruited in 1943. These had all been selected 

 on the basis of apparent variations of skin color of the apples. While slight differ- 

 ences in coloration were apparent, none were great enough to be of commercial 

 significance. None of the distinctly striped strains fruited. This year's experi- 

 ence suggests that perhaps the selection of strains should be confined to the 

 elimination of distinctly striped strains. Real evaluation of Mcintosh strains 

 awaits their performance in the orchard planted in 1941. 



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

 cause of the severe winter of 1942-43, all peach buds were killed so that there 

 was no crop and no field work could be done. It has been decided to terminate 

 this project, and a final report is being prepared. 



Tree Characters of Fruit Varieties. (J. K. Shaw, A. P. French, O. C. Roberts 

 and L. Southwick.) New varieties are being grown in the nursery for study in 

 order that we may be familiar with them when found in commercial nurseries 

 in the course of the usual nursery inspection service. One nursery was inspected 

 for the first time in 1943, and, as is usual, more misnamed trees were found than 

 in nurseries that have been examined for several years. The Massachusetts 

 Trueness-to-Name Inspection Service now examines a large proportion of the 

 nursery fruit trees grown in the northeastern part of the country and the number 

 of misnamed trees reaching growers is very small. 



A bulletin on plum varieties has been published. 



