CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE WISLEY LABORATORY. 163 
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE WISLEY LABORATORY. 
XXXIX. — Comparative Cropping of Apple Trees Propagated 
from Parent Trees of Good History and Bad History. 
By A. N. Rawes, Officer in charge of Fruit Experiments. 
The object of this experiment, which was begun in 191 3, was to 
ascertain whether or not Apple Trees propagated by buds or scions 
taken from trees that had more or less regularly carried good crops 
gave better results than those propagated in a similar manner from 
trees of the same variety, growing under the same conditions, that 
had as regularly carried only very poor crops. It will be apparent 
to even the casual observer that such differences between trees of 
a variety present themselves to some extent in almost every planta- 
tion and garden, and it is a problem of importance to nurserymen 
and growers alike whether or not such differences are transmissible, 
and whether the cropping habit peculiar to the parent tree is exhibited 
in the young trees propagated from them. 
Excellent material was at hand for carrying out this experiment, 
since for many years previous to 191 3, and subsequently, individual 
trees of varieties contained in the large collection of Apples growing 
near the Meteorological Station in the Gardens at Wisley, had shown 
very marked differences in their cropping habits. 
An examination of the records of these trees showed that it was of 
common occurrence to find one tree of a variety cropping heavily year 
after year, whilst another tree of the same variety, growing within a few 
feet and of exactly the same age, would be as regularly carrying very 
poor crops. Furthermore, this difference could be traced back almost 
to the time the trees first commenced to bear fruit, the trees being now 
about twenty years old. 
This difference between trees of the same variety existed in many 
instances in our plantations. 
The trees compared appeared in each instance to be in perfectly 
normal health, and equally free from disease or other obvious causes 
that might affect the normal fruiting, and we were satisfied that in 
no way could these differences be rightly attributed to differing 
cultural methods or soil conditions, all trees of each variety in the 
collection being treated as nearly as possible in the same manner 
throughout. 
Four varieties were selected for the experiment. In each, one 
tree showed consistently good cropping habit and one consistently 
poor cropping habit, the varieties being ' Cox's Pomona, ' Ecklinville 
Seedling/ ' Duchess of Oldenburgh,' and ' Egremont Russet.' 
Buds or scions from each of these trees were worked on to both 
