THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 181 



ANNUAL BEARING APPLE TREES. 



The annual production of fruit is a subject of much importance, and one 

 thai interests everybody. Among fruit-growers it is well understood that many 

 of the best varieties of apples bear every other year. To obviate this incon- 

 venience and have their fruit every year, some persons favor the planting of a 

 part of the apple orchard one year and finishing it the next; while others recom- 

 mend planting half in the spring and the other half in the fall. What the 

 time or manner of planting the trees have to do with their annual or biennial 

 habits of bearing, I cannot understand. I will venture to say that the annual 

 bearing of the apple tree is produced by its ability to make fruit buds while it 

 is maturing a crop of fruit. If this be true, and I have no doubt that it is, 

 the practice to be pursued is to aid it in performing all its functions every year. 

 How is this to be done? I answer, by not allowing it to overbear. When this 

 is the case, the tree, after it has commenced bearing, will form blossom buds 

 every year. 



There are two kinds of fruit buds, simple and compound. These buds are 

 enclosed in thick water-proof scales, and look very much alike until the scales 

 begin to open, when the former show but a single blossom, as is always the 

 case in the peach ; while the latter show a number of smaller buds, each hav- 

 ing a calix and all the necessary parts of the Mower to produce fruit. In the 

 apple this compound bud, called the cyme, has five to eight blossoms, all of 

 which were started on a minute scale the previous summer. Many of the blos- 

 soms of the cyme set their fruit, and when thinning is not done there is more 

 fruit on the tree than it is capable of maturing, and at the same time perform 

 the necessary functions for the next year's crop. The central blossom of the 

 group is the first one to open, and becomes the most prominent one of the cyme. 

 Its pistil is the principal organ of fructification, and is supplied with pollen 

 from the other blossoms of the tree, carried to it by insects and the wind, as 

 well as from its own anthers. It always sets its fruit unless the stigma becomes 

 injured. If all the young fruit in the cyme could be removed after it is set, 

 except this central one, there would be left as much as the tree could properly 

 mature, and prepare new buds for the next year's crop. To remove all the 

 unnecessary fruit from each cyme, would be a very difficult task, as well as a 

 tedious one. Perhaps the more expeditious, if not the best method, is to remove 

 all the fruit from a branch. It is the one I practice, and which has, with me, 

 proved a success. The branch from which the fruit is removed commences 

 making fruit buds for the next year, while the others mature the present year's 

 crop. In this way I get apples every year from biennial bearing trees, unless 

 the entire crop of fruit is killed by frost or other climatic influences. 



Before I proceed to give directions for performing the operation, I will state 

 that I only remove the fruit from that class of trees that bear their fruit on 

 spurs — short stubs coming out along the branches, at the end of which is a 

 bunch of blossoms. Among this class of varieties will be found the Astrachan, 

 Kambo, Ked Streak, Belmont, Primate, some of the Pippins and others. 

 Nearly all the trees that bear their fruit on spurs have wide-spreading branches, 

 thus enabling me the more readily to perform the operation. 



I first prepared a double ladder, made of pine boards, and about twelve feet 

 long. It is fastened together at the top with hinges, so that I can spread it out, 

 or set it up straight as circumstances may require. The ladder is three feet 

 wide at the bottom and one at the top, so that it stands very steadily and is so 



