FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
141 
The principle involved in the progeny- 
grove applies not only to citrus varieties 
but undoubtedly to all bud-propagated 
plants—a fact that is being gradually real¬ 
ized. 
A recent publication issued by the Cana¬ 
dian Society of Technical Agriculture 
(Sci. Agri. Dec. 1921 p. 120) contains 
an account of an experiment in bud hered¬ 
ity with the Wealthy apple. The progenies 
from high and low yielding parent trees 
grown side by side have given high and 
low yields corresponding to their parents. 
Records were kept on these progenies con¬ 
sisting of seventeen grafted trees covering 
nine years of production, the progeny 
from the heaviest yielding parent tree 
having given 62% more crop on the aver¬ 
age than the progeny from the poorest 
yielding tree. To check against any pos¬ 
sible differences due to the vigor of indi¬ 
vidual stocks, scions from the best and 
poorest yielding apple trees were top- 
grafted on large bearing trees, each such 
tree carrying both high and low yielding 
scions. Here again the total crops for a 
five-year period corresponded to the yield 
of the respective parent trees, the differ¬ 
ence in production being even more pro¬ 
nounced than when propagated on sepa¬ 
rate stocks. 
Such results as these all lead to the con¬ 
clusion that there do exist inherent differ¬ 
ences in bud strains that can be isolated 
and perpetuated by the selection of and 
propagation from superior individuals. 
There is no doubt in my mind that differ¬ 
ences of commercial or economic impor¬ 
tance often exist when they are not dis¬ 
cernible without the aid of carefully kept 
tree records—a point that has been the 
subject of much speculation and some ar¬ 
gument among Florida growers for a 
number of years. Recently I have had 
the opportunity to go over the actual tree 
picking records from several Florida 
groves of good average production, and 
where the trees appear at a casual inspec¬ 
tion to be quite uniformly vigorous and 
productive. 
It is no uncommon thing in computing 
the individual tree yields to find certain 
individuals that have produced over a six 
or seven-year period two to four times 
the average amount of fruit yielded by 
other trees in the same grove. While the 
number of actual “drones” or non-produc¬ 
ers is very small, yet such trees have been 
found to exist; furthermore, there are nu¬ 
merous low-yielding trees that fall consid¬ 
erably below the general average—trees 
that to all appearances have every advan¬ 
tage that their neighbors enjoy. Such 
trees come dangerously near the point of 
being maintained at a loss—especially in 
periods of low prices. While the elimina¬ 
tion of these low producers is important, 
for the future of fruit production the dis¬ 
covery of the unusually prolific trees for 
propagation is even more important and 
justifies the work necessary to locate 
them, even though no drones or unprofit¬ 
able trees be found in the course of the 
investigation. We are familiar with the 
efficiency methods that have revolution¬ 
ized modern factory method and practice 
—it is an accepted fact that competition 
has forced the adoption of such methods 
—and the man or plant that fails to fall 
in line is soon hopelessly involved. Is it 
