SUGGESTIONS FOR RIGHT SELECTION OF APPLE STOCKS. 259 



fibrous and stump-rooted, as well as vigorous ones resulting from a 

 well-balanced root system. 



Meanwhile, very careful investigations were being made at East 

 Mailing with regard to the relative vigour of Free, Crab, and Paradise 

 stocks, and the range of growth and root system included in each 

 class. The results of this particular part of our work have not 

 hitherto been publicly recorded, therefore I wish to dwell shortly 

 upon these experiments, as they are complementary both of our 

 own previous work on Paradise stock and of the free-stock work at 

 Bristol. 



Trials at East Mailing of the Relative Vigour of Free and Paradise 

 Stocks. — Selected types of Paradise, ranging from the dwarf Type IV. 

 to the very vigorous Type XIII., all raised vegetatively from layers, 

 were planted out on their own roots to demonstrate their relative 

 vigour. To this collection I shall return later. 



A year prior to this, in November 1913, Captain Wellington 

 and myself went very carefully through a considerable bed of so-called 

 crab stocks obtained from a foreign source through an English nursery- 

 man in 1912. It was noted that when these seedlings, mostly two- 

 year olds, were planted out, they appeared to be very even, and the 

 majority exhibited a tap- rooting tendency. When they were planted 

 out at Wye in 1912 these tap-roots were, of course, trimmed back at 

 the time of planting. 



At the first inspection a year after planting, we noted the bed 

 as generally very free-growing and clean-stemmed at the base. A 

 large number had bold broad leaves, with red petioles, stout wood, and 

 prominent buds, which we remarked as somewhat resembling ' Beauty 

 of Bath.' Only a very few appeared stunted and spiny at the time. 

 It is interesting to note that in the normal course of events at this point 

 such a bed of stocks would have been " worked " before anything 

 more was known about it, hence the common impression among many 

 tree-raisers that free and crab stocks vary little. Few nurserymen 

 have had time or inclination to grow on such a bed of stocks for seven 

 years to see what it revealed. 



We proceeded, however, to select out certain typical ones. These 

 were transferred to East Mailing, and were planted out in February 

 1914 to grow on on their own roots, which they did until March 1919, 

 when they were lifted in order to obtain the present series of photo- 

 graphs of their relative growth and rooting characters. A period of 

 five years was thus allowed to elapse, the stocks being about eight years 

 from the seed. The series of photographs, showing the trees taken to 

 scale, is in itself striking enough in its illustration and proof of the 

 immense variation in vigour amongst so-called free or crab stocks. 

 However, to show that the difference is not very apparent in the 

 early stages, I will give the original descriptive notes made of the 

 stocks at the time of their selection in 1913, and at their examination 

 in 1919. 



