The Canadian Horticulturist 



Vol. XXIX 



JUNE, 1906 



No. 6 



Bearing vs. Non-Bearing Wood for Propagation 



FORj several years trouble has been 

 experienced by many orchardists be- 

 cause their fruit trees fail to set good 

 crops of fruit, and even in the case of a 

 light crop, they may have a failure as to 

 color and quality. The Northern Spy 

 is, perhaps, the most common example 

 of this. In most cases it fails to bear 

 for 15 or 20 years, and then only responds 

 with light crops of overgrown, colorless, 

 punky specimens, without keeping qual- 

 ity. Other trees, and sometimes parts 

 of Spy orchards, frequently come into 

 bearing at six or eight years of age and 

 bear regularly from that time on, pro- 

 ducing medium-sized, sound, well-col- 

 ored fruit, of excellent keeping quality. 

 Some orchards of Spy trees have been 

 procured, part from one nursery, and 

 part from another, and after coming to 

 maturity have presented these two ex- 

 tremes of bearing qualities, thus pre- 

 senting a problem to the grower as to 

 the cause of this great variation. Never- 

 theless, with the light of recent develop- 

 ments in the science of propagation, 

 the solving of this problem is not such a 

 difficult task. 



Experiments have shown that in 

 top working young trees with scions 

 taken from Spy trees of the heavy bear- 

 ing type, crops of good, sound, highly- 

 colored fruit have been produced in a 

 very few years, and the trees have con- 

 tinued to bear regularly. This clearly 

 indicates the source of the trouble with 

 these non-bearing orchards. The prac- 

 tice of so many nurserymen in propa- 

 gating their trees from block to block 

 in the nursery, taking the wood from the 

 older blocks and grafting or budding 

 the young trees year after year, probably 

 in some cases without a break for 20, 

 30, 40, and even 50 years, is nothing 

 more nor less than a perfect method of 

 breeding non-bearing trees. 



It must be patent to the ordinary 

 observer that this is the source of the 

 trouble. Not only is this tendency devel- 

 oped in the Spy apple, but, also, in all 

 the moderate bearing varieties, such as 

 Baldwin, Greening, Russet, and others. 

 It is also true with the moderate bear- 

 ing varieties of plums, peaches, pears, 

 cherries, and even currants, especially 

 the good old Black Naples, all of which 

 come from the same source. The Black 



. JosepK T-weddlo, Fruitland, Ont. 



Naples currant is perhaps the most 

 notable example of this. The country 

 has been flooded with plantations of 

 great, strong growing, barren plants 

 of this variety, and after being cared for 

 by years of patient toil, they have been 

 found to be useless and had to be de- 

 stroyed. Here and there, however, plant- 

 ations of this variety are to be seen 

 showing variations in productiveness, 

 all the way from prodigious to medium, 

 poor crops, and perfect failures. 



The source of this, too, is not hard to 

 find. This splendid variety when first 

 disseminated was in great demand, on 



To tKe Forefront 



"I feel impelled to say that ThB 

 Horticulturist has rapidly 

 sprung to the forefront as the best 

 all-round periodical devoted en- 

 tirely to horticulture which I 

 receive; and I get them all. Fol- 

 low out that aim and Canada 

 cannot help being proud of you." 



A. E. Burke, 



Pres. F.G.A. of P.E.I. 



account of its all round excellent qual- 

 ities and was procured at high prices, but 

 in Hmited quantities, by the leading 

 nurserymen. These were planted out 

 in rank growing soil for propagating pur- 

 poses only. These plants are known as 

 stools, and the wood is cut off from year 

 to year near the ground, so close that 

 no fruit can be borne. This permits 

 the energies of the bush to be expended 

 in wood growing only. Woo'd is cut in 

 this way from year to year, continuing 

 in some cases for many years and the 

 wood used for propagating. 



Is it any wonder that we have the 

 present conditions from such methods? 

 Let us look at it more definitely. Is it 

 not reasonable to conclude that these 

 stools would naturally produce planta- 

 tions less and less productive until 

 entirely run out? Further, if these 

 various plantations are the source of 

 propagation of other plantations, would 

 they not produce the same degree of 

 unproductiveness as they themselves 



141 



show? It was the writer's experience, 

 several years ago, to have to purchase 

 1,000 Black Naples bushes from a 

 reliable United States firm. They were 

 guaranteed true to name, or money 

 refunded. These plants were used to 

 fill orders from growers. In due time 

 they returned and demanded the refund 

 of their money, as they all turned out 

 to be this same worthless, non-bearing 

 stock. Of course we were compelled 

 to pony up, but on application to the 

 producer, the head of the firm replied 

 that this could not be, as he bought the 

 original stocks from the introducer and 

 had ever since propagated from the 

 original stools. Since they were used 

 exclusively for wood production, they 

 must be true to name, but I was just as 

 convinced that they were as untrue to 

 the original type as possible. Another 

 nurseryman told me he cut 20,000 cut- 

 tings from a row 20 rods long. We 

 must conclude that this is an easy way 

 to get wood for propagation, but to the 

 grower, an impossible way to get fruit. 



Would it not be well that a series of 

 experiments be entered into and con- 

 ducted by the Ontario Government with 

 a view to the final and definite solving 

 of the problem in its minutest detail? 

 We do not think that the nurserymen 

 are entirely to blame. Trees grown 

 for years in succession from wood pro- 

 cured from nursery blocks, are much 

 straighter and thriftier than those pro- 

 duced from scions taken from heavy 

 bearing trees of the original type, and 

 in nine cases out of 10 the grower will 

 select the straight trees grown from 

 the nursery wood and refuse the less 

 thrifty looking trees, produced from 

 wood ofT bearing trees. There is little 

 encouragement for the nurserymen to 

 take the proper course. Millions of 

 dollars would be saved to Canadian 

 fruit growers by a complete change of 

 methods. 



In the Ozarks region of Missouri and 

 Arkansas if appks fail to bear at four or 

 five years of age the foremost growers 

 are resorting to the method of girdhng 

 the trees in June when the sap is thick- 

 ening. A strip of bark two inches wide 

 is peeled from the trees, girdling them 

 just below the branches where it is most 

 shaded from the sun. In 10 davs or so 



