G6 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
parentage. The variation between different trees is evi¬ 
dent not only in the baring orchard but also in the nur¬ 
sery row, particularly in the attribute of si/e. The nur¬ 
seryman commonly grades trees of the same age into 
several sizes, according to height, caliper or both. There 
is a difference in price of a few cents a tree between the 
several sizes. Many growers are tempted to buy the 
smaller and cheaper trees, thinking that they will ulti¬ 
mately make as good an orchard as the larger trees. If 
the trees are small simply because they did not have as 
good a chance as the others in the nursery row, this 
might be true. But a majority of the trees are small be¬ 
cause of a poor union between stock and cion, or because 
the seedling root is not suitable. This is a fundamental 
difference, which can be overcome by good care only in 
part. 
Experiments, as well as experience, have shown the 
superior value of large trees over small trees of the 
same age. At the Citrus Experiment Station in Califor¬ 
nia, large, medium and small nursery trees of several 
varieties of citrus, planted side by side, showed that “the 
large trees remain large, the intermediate trees remain 
intermediate and the small remain small,” after several 
years. Similar results were secured with apples in ex¬ 
periments at the Maine Experiment Station, and else¬ 
where. On the other hand, there are objections to very 
large trees. They are more difficult to transplant. In 
some cases they are the result of over-irrigation or heavy 
fertilizing; these trees are now more liable to winter 
injury when planted in the fall. 
The common preference for medium to fairly large 
trees is well founded. It is only the small trees that 
should be avoided; some of these are merely stunted, and 
may recover, but many of them are runts, and always 
will be. One of the objections to buying two and three 
year old trees, especially of the smaller sizes, is the pos¬ 
sibility that some of these older trees are those that 
were too small to sell the first year. It should be remem¬ 
bered, also, that large and small are relative terms, de¬ 
pending on the variety, and to some extent on the season. 
Pedigreed Trees. How much of the observed differ¬ 
ences in the behavior of trees in the orchard is due to 
the parentage of the hud or cion? If we are to believe 
the evidence of research, very little. Twenty years ago 
nurserymen and fruit growers were urged to propagate 
only from the best bearing trees, and so perpetuate the 
good qualities of the parent. This looks plausible 
enough, and some nurserymen have made considerable 
extra money selling “pedigreed” nursery stock. If they 
are honest nurserymen, they will now stop using that 
term. It is applicable only to sexual propagation, as 
with livestock or seeds, and not to asexual propagation, 
as with buds or cions. 
The experimental evidence is quite conclusive that 
heavy production or other superior qualities of certain 
trees, due to favorable conditions of some sort, mostly 
to soil variations and differences in the root stocks are 
rarely transmitted to the trees propagated from them. 
In 1895. the Missouri Experiment Station propagated 
from two trees of Ben Davis, one of which had a consist¬ 
ent record over a series of years for high production; the 
other had an equally consistent record for low yield. 
When the progeny of these trees came into bearing, it 
was found that those propagated from the good parent 
had an average annual yield, for seven years, of 7.2 
bushels per tree, while those propagated from the poor 
parent average 8.5 bushels per tree. Similar results have 
been obtained on apples at the New York, Indiana, On¬ 
tario, Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Illinois Experi¬ 
ment Stations; while an English experimenter, A. N. 
Rawes, reports, “The trees propagated from parents with 
a good history have not yielded more or better fruit than 
those propagated from parents with a bad history.” 
With citrous fruits, however, the results are quite 
different. Shamel has shown that there are a number 
of distinct strains of the Washington Navel orange, Val¬ 
encia orange and other citrus varieties. Many of these 
are decidedly inferior. Buds taken from trees of the 
superior strains, and used either to top work the inferior 
trees or to propagate new trees, have carried over the 
superior qualities of the parent. So clearly has the ad¬ 
vantage of bud selection been demonstrated, that the Cali¬ 
fornia Citrus Exchange now maintains a department of 
bud selection, and has distributed over 1.250.000 buds 
from selected trees. Practically all California nursery¬ 
men now propagate their citrus only from selected trees. 
Citrus fruits, however, are noted for their great varia¬ 
bility; varieties of deciduous fruits are far more stable. 
Now and then a marked variation, or mutation, does ap¬ 
pear in deciduous fruits, such as the Red Rome apple, 
or the Collamer Twenty Ounce and these are transmitted 
in vegetative propagation; but practically all of the varia¬ 
tions that are observed in the behavior of different trees 
of the same variety of apples and other eastern fruits are 
fluctuating and temporary and are not transmitted in pro¬ 
pagation. This is why so many hundreds of fruit grow¬ 
ers have been disappointed in “pedigreed” strawberry 
plants and other highly advertised nursery stock. 
Quality in nursery stock, with reference to the par¬ 
entage of the bud or cion, does not mean “pedigree,” or 
propagation direct from superior trees. It means that 
the nurseryman may take bud-sticks from trees in the 
nursery row if he wishes to. provided he is sure that they 
are true to name. There is nothing to lose and possibly 
something to gain, especially in securing trees true to 
name, by taking buds from superior bearing trees, and 
the practice is to be commended; but these trees cannot 
honestly be sold as “pedigreed” trees. If well grown, 
they are simply good nursery stock—nothing more. 
Variation in Seedling Rootstocks. Everyone who has 
raised a quantity of fruit seedlings, either for stocks or 
in the hope of securing a desirable new variety, knows 
that they are variable. If one were to plant and bring 
into bearing a hundred seedlings of the French crab 
stock, for example, about as much difference would be 
found between them, in size of tree, in habit of growth, 
in time of ripening and in character of fruit as there is 
between a hundred named varieties. Such a demon¬ 
stration of variation in French root stocks may be seen 
on the Arlington Farm of the United States Department 
of Agriculture, at Washington. 
Every seedling is different, in some degree, from every 
other seedling. The importance of this point lies in the 
fact that the rootstock may have, and often does have, an 
