SUGGESTIONS FOR RIGHT SELECTION OF APPLE STOCKS. 263 



of Malus communis by Continental firms is no more nor less than 

 hybrid apple seed, and thoroughly unsatisfactory." 



It is often denied that this inequality in the stocks shows itself in 

 the worked trees. Although it is true that a strong-growing variety, 

 such as Bramley's Seedling, may largely obliterate this inequality in 

 the maiden, differences again become apparent in the second and third 

 years. I have rarely seen a bed of worked crabs with less than 5 per cent, 

 obvious weaklings, whilst the percentage often runs much higher. 



Whilst we have in mind this lack of uniformity in vigour of free 

 stocks (raised as at present from chance seedlings), which must entail 

 considerable loss to the tree-raiser and the tree-grower, it will be well 

 to compare the collection of photographs taken of the series of 

 selected Paradise (all raised vegetatively) already referred'to. Though 

 the trees are some eighteen months younger than the crab stocks 

 which are illustrated, they are comparable in that they show a similar 

 range of vigour and variety of root system. The series starts with 

 the dwarf Type IV Paradise (fig. 54) comparable with the free stock 

 / (fig. 53) , and ends with the vigorous types of Paradise from Germany, 

 of which Types X, XIII, and XVI show considerable promise as 

 free stocks. 



Note the deep-rooting habit of Type X. (fig. 59) especially, and 

 the well-balanced system of coarse laterals and ample fibre so typical 

 of the stronger free-growing stocks such as A and C. When we compare 

 the two series, we realize that the old maxim that seedlings are always 

 deep-rooted and layers always surface-rooted is a very imperfect one. 



We have found it just as possible to raise stocks of deep anchorage 

 by layers and other vegetative methods as it is easy to find shallow- 

 rooted ones in any collection of free stocks raised from pips. 



We are faced, then, with two converging series quite arbitrarily 

 divided, the one ranging from dwarfness to vigour and the other from 

 vigour to dwarfness ; the only real distinction being that the Paradise 

 series has been raised vegetatively, and any particular member of the 

 series can be reproduced by that method again and again, whilst the 

 free series has been raised from seed, and as long as this method 

 is employed infinite variety and inequality will continue, except in 

 rare instances. 



It is often argued that ' true crabs ' are less variable than 

 ' ordinary free stocks/ but I cannot learn what the trade distinction 

 stands for. If free stocks are the chance children of cider fruits, 

 crabs * are the chance progeny of wildings ; but every district has 

 many so-called crabs varying in vigour and character. I have seen 

 them strong and clean, dwarfing and root-knotted, whilst the types 

 of fruits are various. I do not pretend to assert that free stocks from 

 particular sources "may not be more even than from other sources. 

 That simply depends on the chance crosses, on the varieties mixed or 



* In using the word " crab," I refer to the commercial trees, and not to 

 definite | botanical species which are unobtainable in quantity for nursery- 

 purposes. 



