76 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fruits have well set or have attained any size), another crop of buds is 

 formed for the next year, whereas, if these flowers or young fruits are 

 allowed to remain, far fewer, or in many cases no blossom buds, arc 

 formed during that season. The idea seems more probable also from 

 the additional fact that alternate bearing has been experimentally elimi- 

 nated by means of the application of fertilizers, proper pruning, and 

 adequate water supply. 



A number of years ago this matter of the relation of pruning and 

 fertilizers to fruit-bud formation and crop production was discussed 

 before this Society. The principles laid down then need but be re- 

 affirmed at this time, to aid in an understanding of some of the causes 

 of alternate bearing and some possible remedies for the condition. It 

 was stated that the most outstanding facts relating to fruit production 

 are: (1), that a tree should possess not the greatest number of fruit buds, 

 but a moderate number of such buds of excellent quality; (2), that vege- 

 tativeness and fruitfulness are not antagonistic functions of a tree but 

 are intimately associated and tied up with each other; and (3), that 

 the production of the quantity and quality of fruit buds is associated 

 neither with the greatest nor least possible degree of vegetativeness of 

 the tree, but with a sort of midway condition. Before entering into a 

 detailed discussion of these points, it is well to recall the fruiting habits 

 of some trees. 



There is no one thing more essential to a comprehensive understanding 

 of the practices which can be applied to trees to induce or maintain 

 annual bearing, than a knowledge of the fruiting habits of the trees 

 themselves. Not only do the different kinds of fruits vary widely in 

 this regard, but the different varieties of any given kind have their indi- 

 vidual characteristics. It is not possible to go into detail here, except 

 in the case of the apple. This fruit bears what are termed mixed fruit 

 buds; that is to say, each fruit bud contains not only the young flowers, 

 but also a young, laterally placed, vegetative bud which continues the 

 growth of the spur in somewhat of a zig-zag line, from year to year. 

 In this respect it differs from the cherry, whose fruit buds contain blos- 

 soms alone. During the year of blooming out of the fruit bud of the 

 apple, this vegetative bud may (1), remain as a tiny pointed vegetative 

 bud; (2), grow out into a twig of varying length; or (3), develop into 

 another fruit bud. In this last case there would be annunl blooming of 

 the spur. As many as fifteen per cent of the spurs of Jonathan may 

 bloom two or more years in succession, in this way. In most instances, 

 however, a shoot with a vegetative bud at its tip is produced, and it is 

 not until during the following year that this shoot forms a fruit bud a1 

 its tip; thus the spur blooms only every other year under these condi- 

 tions. But, fortunately, fruit buds are not borne only on spurs; they 

 are borne quite as frequently as terminals on long shoots varying from 

 three to ten or more inches in length, and in many varieties, as lateral or 

 side buds, as well, on such long shoots. Varieties vary a great deal in 

 the proportions of the buds which they bear in one or more of these posi- 

 tions, some rarely produce any lateral fruit buds at all, others such as 

 the Wagener, Transparent, and the like, maj^ produce as much as ninety 

 per cent of the first few crops from such buds, though later in life they 

 may bear almost exclusively on spurs. Ben Davis is likely to bear many 

 of its fruit buds terminally on rather long shoots. Some other varieties 



