56 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I907. 



Another feature worthy of note is the continued exhibition 

 of individuality of character suggested last year.* Certain trees, 

 as is the case with certain hens in a flock, or certain cows in a 

 herd, are more or less uniformly productive, while others are 

 uniformly unproductive, or are erratic. Compare, for example, 

 Numbers 17, 20, 21, 22, 25, 32, 47, 51, 6y, and 81, with 16, 28, 

 43, 50, 52, 54, 64, 68, 73, and 78. During the four seasons since 

 the records have been kept, the first 10 trees, representing all 

 of the different plots, have yielded an aggregate of /31 barrels 

 of fruit. During the same period the second 10 trees, repre- 

 senting the. same plots, have produced an aggregate of 39 bar- 

 rels. Continuous records of these trees will be kept, and cions 

 from each engrafted upon a uniform foundation stock for 

 comparison. 



Most of the trees formerly designated as bearing an "extra 

 good type" of fruit, so far as they produced fruit at all, this 

 year, showed the same desirable characteristics. This is partic- 

 ularly true of numbers 17, 20, 25, and 51. Cions from these 

 trees, also, will be made the basis of comparison with cions from 

 less desirable types. 



It is generally believed that by selecting cions from trees of 

 productive habit and desirable type, the character of a young 

 orchard may be correspondingly improved ; but no accurate data 

 are available to substantiate this claim. The fact of bud varia- 

 tion is admitted, and the results obtained by George T. Powell,f 

 and others, point to the practice of cion selection as one of prob- 

 able importance. One of the aims of the station in conducting 

 the work here described is, if possible, to answer definitely the 

 questions involved. 



THE TOP-WORKED ORCHARD.* 



While conclusions cannot yet be drawn from the work in 

 top-grafting, it is of interest to note that all trees of Jonathan, 

 both those from nursery stock and those from bearing trees, 

 bore some fruit this year. The yield was not large — 1-2 peck 

 to one peck on each tree — but for trees engrafted but 2 1-2 



* Bulletin 122 of this Station, pp. 194, 195. 

 f Trans. Maine Pom. Soc, 1899, p. 44. 



* See Bulletin 122 of this Station, pp. 198, 199. 



