21 



This year several of the spurs along the 1893 growth — 12 

 to D — bore flowers. Flowers were borne from two buds on 

 the first one (at 13 and 14), but none of the flowers **set." 

 One of the little apples that died last June still clings to the 

 spur, at 14. A side bud, 15, formed to continue the spur in 

 1897. Flowers were borne at 16, 20, 21 and 23, but no 

 apples developed. Upon 16 and 20 the flowers died soon 

 after they opened, as seen by the remains of them. Upon 23 

 one of the flowers set an apple, but the apple soon died. 

 The spurs i 7 and 1 8 are so weak that they have never made 

 fruit-buds, and they are now nearly dead. The spurs 19 and 

 22 have behaved differently. Like the others they grew in 

 1894 and would have made terminal fruit-buds in 1895, ^^^ 

 would have borne fruit in 1896; but the terminal buds were 

 broken off in the fall or winter of 1894, so that two side buds 

 developed in 1895, ^.nd each of these developed a fruit-bud 

 at its end in 1896 in the spur 19, but only Oiie of them de- 

 veloped such a bud in 22. Upon these spurs, therefore^ 

 the bearing year has been changed. 



Upon the growth of 1894 — D to beyond E — only three 

 spurs have developed, Nos. 24, 25, 26. These started out 

 in 1895, and two of them — 25 and 26 — have made large^ 

 fat buds which are evidently fruit-buds. The shoot at E 

 grew on to EE, and all the buds on its lower two-year old 

 portion remained dormant. 



On the 1895 growth — from beyond E to 28 — all the buds 

 remained dormant save one, and this one — 2'] — made only 

 a very feeble attempt to grow into a spur. 

 The buds upon the 1892 growth — i to 12 — are still dormant 

 and waiting for an opportunity to grow. 



What an eventful history this apple twig has had ! And yet 

 in all the seven years of its life, after having made fifteen efforts 

 to bear fruit, it has not produced a single good apple! The 

 fault, therefore, does not lie in the shoot. It has done the best 

 it could. The trouble has been that the farmer either did not 

 give the tree enough food to enable it to support the fruits, or 

 he did not prune the tree so as to give the twig light and room, 

 or he allowed apple-scab or some other disease to kill the young 

 apples as they were forming. I am wondering, therefore, if, 

 when the trees fail to bear, it is not quite as often the fault of 

 the farmer as it is of the trees ? 



