l60 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



a constant and intense struggle for existence. Owing to the 

 different conditions of light, air, food, and room for extension^ 

 some branches will be large and vigorous, others will be small 

 and weak ; some will produce fruit freely, others will be barren. 

 In the same way, no two fruits are ever exactly alike. Some 

 will be large, others small ; some roundish, some oblong ; some 

 highly colored and of good flavor; others pale and insipid. 



This fact of the universality of bud varieties, together with 

 the fact that variations may be perpetuated by asexual means is 

 of the utmost importance in practical horticulture and in the 

 systematic improvement of fruits and vegetables. The practical 

 fruit grower knows that some trees never bear any fruit and 

 that others of the same kind bear abundantly; that some Bald- 

 wins and Spys are habitually large, and others habitually small 

 and unsatisfactory, and these observations are borne out by the 

 records of the Station orchard. Upon close examination of the 

 branches of an individual tree, through a series of years, the 

 same phenomena would be found to exist in individual branches. 

 A very good illustration of the case in point is that of a currant 

 plantation cited by Powell.* A plantation of Fay currants 

 containing some 12,000 bushes came directly or indirectly, 

 through cuttings, from 25 selected plants, purchased when the 

 variety was first introduced. The original plants were uniform 

 in size and very productive. In the haste for a large number 

 of plants the new wood was cut from these bushes every fall, 

 and when more bushes were established they in turn were 

 divided into cuttings as often as new wood was made. Little 

 attention was paid to the bearing capacity of the bushes in later 

 generations because of the excellent character of the original 

 stock. As a result of this lack of attention, at the end of 

 12 years some of the bushes were found to be heavy bearers, 

 others very light bearers and others almost barren. How this 

 came about is readily seen, and the remedy is equally obvious. 

 If a single bud produces a branch which is barren, or nearly so, 

 and that branch happens to be taken as a cutting, naturally a 

 barren bush results. If this bush, before its character is deter- 

 mined, is used for cuttings, the tendency is perpetuated and an 

 ever increasing series of worthless plants is esablished. 



* American Garden, 1898, p. 466. 



