32 SCIENCE AND FRUIT GROWING 



1500 trees ; but, for reasons detailed in the Reports, it is fairer 

 to group these sets together in some cases, and, when this is 

 done, it is found that out of 70 such grouped sets, 41 (or 59 per 

 cent.) showed increased growth to follow the rough planting in 

 the first season, and that out of 54 sets in which measurements 

 were made after the first season, 39, or 72 per cent, of the 

 whole, showed a similar advantage in the second year. Thus the 

 superiority increases as time progresses, and this is shown also by 

 the actual magnitude of the increased growth, for it amounted, 

 on the average, to 38 per cent, in the first year, and to 54 per 

 cent, in the second year. 



Increased growth, however, was not, as will be seen, an in- 

 variable consequence of rough planting; in about 20 per cent, 

 of the cases available the results were negative, there being a 

 difference of less than 10 per cent, between the roughly and 

 carefully planted trees ; whilst in a certain number of cases the 

 balance was in favour of careful planting : these cases repre- 

 sented 14 per cent, of the total number when the first year's 

 measurements alone were considered, and n per cent, in the case of 

 the second year's measurements ; but, as this means that there 

 were between four and seven times as many cases where rough 

 planting was more beneficial than careful planting, the balance 

 is considerably in favour of the former. It is probable that the 

 absence of definite results in the case of some of these trials 

 was due to the difficulty in persuading the planters to be suffi- 

 ciently rough in their handling of the trees, owing to their fear 

 of injuring them ; indeed, in one case no persuasion would induce 

 a Scotch gardener to try such outlandish methods, though he 

 was actually in the employment of the owner of the Fruit Farm. 



That the excess of growth shown by the roughly planted trees 

 was attributable to that growth being of a more whippy char- 

 acter, was sufficiently disproved by the fact that in some of the 

 series the results were based on the actual increase in weight of 

 the trees, whilst in several other series the stoutness of the new 

 growth was directly measured, and was found to be substantially 

 greater to the extent of 15 per cent. with the roughly, than 

 with the carefully planted trees : out of 35 pairs of trees there 

 were only four cases where the reverse obtained (IX, 21). 



How far the excess of growth produced by rough planting is 

 maintained in after years was, perhaps, not investigated so fully 

 as it might have been, for in most cases the experiments or the 

 measurements were discontinued after two years; but in two 

 instances, where observations were continued throughout seven 



