!N~ew York Ageictjlttjbal Expebimext Station. 46 L 



decreased, and more particularly if the nitrogen as compared 

 with the potash and phosphate he decreased, and especially if 

 there be an increase of light and air, wood growth is lessened and 

 the number of fruit buds is materially increased. 



Sometimes the excess of food and moisture is already in the 

 soil and the problem then is to reduce the quantities and so bring 

 on fruit-bud formation. The orthodox method of reducing the 

 quantity of plant food and soil moisture is to sow a grain crop in 

 the orchard. The trees under such treatment cease to make wood 

 growth and use the assimilated substances in the making of fruit 

 buds. This procedure, it should be said at once, is seldom 

 necessary. 



The fact that leaf and wood growth and fruit bearing in plants 

 are opposed to each other is well recognized by fruit growers; but 

 the knowledge is quite too often wrongly used, exemplifying again 

 that " a little learning is a dangerous thing." Thus, to bring 

 trees into bearing is often the owner's excuse for double-cropping 

 orchards, putting an orchard down to sod and withholding proper 

 cultivation. 



Pruning often materially aids in causing the storing of plant 

 food for the formation of fruit buds. One of the general aims of 

 pruning is to regulate the crop of fruit by removing parts of the 

 plant that those remaining may store the necessary food. The 

 theory of pruning to cause formation of fruit buds is simple but 

 the practice is not so simple. The effects of pruning are so varied 

 under different conditions that it is exceedingly difficult to give 

 directions as to its use in influencing the setting of buds. 



Heading-in may sometimes be used to advantage in pruning for 

 fruit. It consists in cutting back young, unbranching shoots 

 which set few or no fruit buds. Heading-in is a necessity with 

 dwarf trees. Practice differs as to whether the operation should 

 be performed in summer or winter but it is usually performed in 

 summer and is then spoken of as summer pruning. Heading-in 

 greatly thickens the top, thereby excluding light and must be 

 practiced very judiciously or more harm than good is done. 



Summer pruning is rather commonly used to influence the 

 formation of fruit buds for the succeeding season. The theory 

 is that by removing a part of the young shoots of the current 

 season, we take from the trees the portions which are making the 

 greatest demands on the plant's nutritive powers and that the 

 remaining parts of the shoots with their buds are enabled to 



