SECRETARY'S REPORT. 151 



moist, rich soils, thus favoring rapid growth, are more tardy in 

 bearing than the same kinds would be if growing in a soil less fa- 

 vorable to rapid growth. If one species be grafted upon another 

 which furnishes a more abundant supply of sap, as when the plum 

 is worked on the peach stock, growth is more rapid, and bearing 

 is retarded. The reverse of this is also true ; when one species is 

 worked on another of slower growth, as the pear upon the quince, 

 productiveness is hastened. The wood-producing and the fruit- 

 producing forces are, as it were, antagonistic to each other, and, 

 as a general rule, whatever favors the one tends to lessen the other. 

 Whatever produces e.xcessive vigor is favorable to the formation of 

 leaf-buds ; while, on the other hand, whatever tends to diminish 

 luxuriance, without injuring the health of the plant, favors the pro- 

 duction of flower-buds instead of leaf-buds. An apparent excep- 

 tion to this rule is found in the fact that a scion from a young 

 seedling tree may be made, by grafting it upon a mature healthy 

 stock, to produce fruit at an earlier age than it would otherwise 

 have done, but this is doubtless owing to the presence in the ma- 

 ture stock of a sufficient quantity of secreted matter fit for the 

 development and maintenance of the flowers when produced. The 

 bending downward of limbs, or training by any mode which checks 

 the free circuJation of the sap, induces fruitfulness. So does 

 transplanting or root pruning, because, the roots being injured, sap 

 is less abundantly supplied in the following season to the leaves, 

 and thus being less able to grow, they do not consume the nutri- 

 tious matter lying in the branches and which they would have 

 expended had they grown with their previous vigor ; consequently 

 the nutritious matter accumulates and fruit buds are formed. 



If the blossom buds of one year are all removed or destroyed, 

 the crop the next year is more abundant ; and a very abundant 

 crop of one year is usually followed by barrenness the succeeding 

 year. Many kinds of apples have a tendency to bear only in al- 

 ternate years. This is owing to the exhaustion which follows the 

 production of more fruit than the tree is able to produce continu- 

 ously, so requiring a season of rest in which to recruit its energies. 

 This may be easily remedied, or the bearing year changed, while 

 the trees are young, by removing the bloom buds or the young fruit 

 ^s soon as formed. In repeated instances the bearing year has 

 been changed by this method from the " even " to the " odd " year, 

 with, great increase of profit to the orchardist. 



