86 



MASS, EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 159. 



is no fixed standard for describing quality, and one person's opinion is as 

 good as another's, provided his experience is as wide and his judgment 

 equally sound. Quality is described as poor, medium, good, very good, excel- 

 lent and best. The judgment of pomologists has been so charitable that 

 "good" has come to signify that the apple under consideration is really 

 rather poor and hardly desirable from the standpoint of quality ; the other 

 descriptive terms are similarly reduced from the meaning they have in 

 common j^arlance. 



In most cases one will hardly care to make such extended and minute 

 descriptions as contemplated in the outline discussed above. Where a 

 briefer description is sufficient, and for the student who has mastered these 

 details, a briefer outfine may readilj^ be prepared; ^ch briefer description 

 will usually give for each variety those qualities which are characteristic 

 and distinctive of that variety. 



The Use of Quantitative Terms. 



Where one wishes to do exact work it will increase accuracy to make 

 liberal use of exact measurements; for the novice, especially if he be a 

 student in systematic pomology, it will improve the soundness of his judg- 

 ment in description, and therefore add to the value of his course of in- 

 struction. It takes time and cannot always be undertaken. 



Many measurements of the tree characters may be made without diffi- 

 culty. The height and spread of the tree may be ascertained by direct 



Fig. 3. — Measuring cross diameter. 



measurement if the tree is small, or by any of the usual methods of forestry 

 work where the tree is large. The length and diameter of the shoots and 

 buds are easily measured; also the length of the petiole and the length 

 and breadth of the leaf blade. The size of the serratures is most con- 

 veniently measured bj^ counting the number per half inch or per centimeter. 



