Feb., 1926] 



PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS 



25 



the constantly increasing popularity of the Mcintosh variety. During 

 the present season, with very heavy supplies of this variety on the New 

 England markets, the demand has on all occasions increased sufficiently 

 to move all of the fruit at relatively satisfactory prices. Accordingly, 

 interest is aroused in the newer seedlings of Mcintosh. Late maturing 

 seedlings of Alclntosh recommended by the New York Experiment 

 Station are already planted in the test orchard of this Station. A number 

 of seedlings which mature earlier than the parent variety are now available 

 and will be added to the Station list of varieties next season. 



A bud sport of the well-known Red Delicious is now being disseminated, 

 and a number of trees of this new strain were planted in the test orchards 

 last spring. It is believed that a late winter apple of high quality which 

 will succeed the Mcintosh in the fruit stand trade would be of immense 

 value in this territory. Considerable interest is being shown in the 

 horticviltural world in the dark red sports which are now known in a 

 number of our important commercial varieties, including not only the 

 Delicious formerly mentioned but also the Baldwin, Spy, Duchess and 

 Gravenstein. Efforts are being made to obtain propagating wood of 

 all of these sorts for use in our station test orchards. It is of interest to 

 note that the dark red sport of the Baldwin, which is the foremost com- 

 mercial variety of apple in this country, occurred in Salisbury, N. H. 



Pruning Experiment with Apples 



The orchard of Northern Spy and Mcintosh, in which the different 

 blocks are being trained respectively to the vase, semi-leader and full 

 leader forms, has now passed through its seventh season. A scattering 

 crop of fruit was picked this year from the Mcintosh trees, and there 

 are indications that the crop will be heavier another season. The data 

 on growth and pruning of this orchard are given in Table XI. 



The total size of the trees as indicated by trunk diameter appears to 

 be slightly greatest in the full leader trees. As has been stated in previous 

 reports, the unpruned trees in this experiment are unfortunately all 

 situated under soil conditions different from and less favorable than 

 those under which the trees under the three pruning treatments are grow- 

 ing. Consequently the size of these trees is not so great as that of the 

 pruned trees although the fact that pruning reduces total growth is well 

 established by horticultural experimentation. Mr. Potter's pruning 

 during the present season has been slightly less severe upon the full 

 leader than upon the vase form and semi-leader trees. Pruning in the 



