SUGGESTIONS FOR RIGHT SELECTION OF APPLE STOCKS. 261 



November 1913. 



H. A very thorny dwarf. 

 Roots very many, thongy, 

 deep rooting, sappy. 



/. Leaves and habit of 

 growth similar to Non- 

 such Paradise. Roots 

 fibrous. Exceptional 

 number of root knots. 



March 1919. 



Dwarf, very spreading and spiny. 

 Height, 5 ft. 2 in. ; girth, 4 J in. Many 

 coarse lateral roots practically devoid 

 of fibre, very spreading, a few with 

 downward tendency. A few fine fibrous 

 laterals. (Fig. 52.) 



Very dwarf. Height, 4 ft. 11 in. ; 

 girth, 4 \ in. Mass of fine lateral roots, 

 none coarse, abundant fibre. (Fig. 53.) 



Thus it will be seen that in a series of eight typical stocks chosen 

 from a single bed of ' crabs,' the height varied between 11 ft. 4 in- 

 and 4 ft. 11 in., and the girth between 9 J in. and 3 J in. 



To all appearances two, or at most three, of the series would have 

 been suitable for standard trees. It is interesting to note that the 

 whole of this series can be, and actually have been, propagated vege- 

 tatively; in many cases with ease, but in others with comparative 

 difficulty. 



This experiment was not a solitary one, nor an isolated instance 

 of particularly great variation, though it must be remembered that 

 our original selection aimed at showing the very different types to 

 be found in any bed of ' crabs/ 



A second bed of 5,000 ' true crabs ' from the Continent — Mains 

 communis — were carefully examined after four years' growth and 

 revealed the same inequalities. After four years many stocks could 

 still be whip-grafted, whilst others had to be rind-grafted with two 

 or more scions. Within the last few days I have examined yet 

 another bed of Continental ' crabs ' at a younger stage, but it is 

 comparatively easy to pick out strong and weak types. 



A similar close examination was made of a collection of free stocks 

 raised from the Pomace from a .West Country orchard. We received 

 100 of these seedlings in March 1917. At the time of planting they 

 were noted as very even ; we thought probably they were selected 

 stuff. These stocks were allowed to grow on until April 1919, and the 

 whole batch were then carefully examined. Ninety-six were still living, 

 and our examination of these revealed interesting characters of vigour, 

 which may be tabulated as follows : 



Tall . . .43 Stout . . .47 



Medium . • . -39 Medium . . -35 



Dwarf . . .14 Slender . . .14 



96 96 



In other words, rather over 14 per cent, appeared distinctly dwarf- 

 ing and weak, though it may be conjectured that somewhere about 



