460 Report of tiik Department of Horticulture of the 



antagonistic to fruit production. Plants that are producing too 



much wood and foliage and too little fruit may be subjected to 

 several treatments to induce them to bear fruit. 



Regulation of the water supply sometimes induces the forma- 

 tion of fruit buds. In the irrigated regions of the west, vegetative 

 growth may be stopped by withholding water and the setting of 

 fruit buds thus be materially influenced. It is a matter of com- 

 mon observation everywhere that a dry season is more conducive to 

 the formation of fruit buds for the ensuing season's crop than a 

 wet one. The water supply in unirrigated regions may be regu- 

 lated only through drainage, but fortunately drainage may often 

 be made an important means of inducing early fruitfulness and a 

 fruit-bearing habit. Other things being equal, trees on wet, sodden 

 soils do not bear fruit early in life and do not set fruit regularly 

 and in proper quantities. Under such conditions there is insuffi- 

 cient food for either wood or fruit production. The remedy is 

 obvious and the subject needs no further discussion. 



Much can be done in securing the proper formation of fruit 

 buds by giving the trees an abundance of light. The outside row 

 in an orchard, where the trees have most light, usually bears the 

 most fruit. It is true that these isolated trees have more food 

 and moisture as well as more light and because of these two 

 factors, also, many buds set. Yet light must be counted as im- 

 portant and is to be secured by proper spacing and by developing 

 open-headed, well pruned trees. 



The food supply has much to do with the formation of fruit 

 buds and probably the most rational procedure voider average 

 orchard conditions to induce fruit bearing is to regulate the sup- 

 ply of food. With the widely varying conditions of different 

 orchards, this is not easily done. It does not appear from any 

 information that we now have that there is a storage of particu- 

 lar food for fruit buds and of other food for wood growth but 

 rather that stored food is quite as available for one sort of growth 

 as for the other, yet it is generally supposed that the kind of food 

 given plants influences the amount stored, and consequently, the 

 number of fruit buds formed or the amomit of growth made. 



Briefly, the behavior of foods upon manner of plant growth is 

 supposed to be this: An abundance of food, especially if it con- 

 tains nitrogen, and if at the same time there be a plentiful sup- 

 ply of water, is most favorable to the formation and growth of 

 cells, hence of wood and leaf growth. If the amount of food be 



