Page 14 



BETTER FRUIT 



January 



BE UP-TO-DATE 



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 Spray your fruit trees the modern way with 



XJKfS Soluble-Sulphur 



(COMPOUND) 



Soluble-Sulphur is the Sulphur Spray with the water left out. 

 A dry powder, easily dissolved in cold or hot water. 

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 No freezing— No Crystalization — No Leakage — No Loss. 

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 in 1-lb. Cans, 10-lb. Cans and 100-lb. Drums. 



Send for Soluble-Sulphur Bulletin. It tells 

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ijm 



Seattle and Portland 



SOLUBLE 

 SEPttllR 



1/ 



WEIGHT 



10 LBS. 



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^} 



Influence of Pruning On *Fruit-Spur System of Apple 



By V. R. Gardner, Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis Read Before Meeting of Oregon State Horttcultural Society, Hood River, December, 1916 



IN presenting this subject, it is my 

 desire to be as brief and to the point 

 as possible. 1 shall attempt to in- 

 clude no more detail than seems abso- 

 lutely necessary to a discussion of the 

 fruiting liabits of the apple and of some 

 of the more evident relations of certain 

 pruning practices to these fruiting 

 habits. If we are to understand how to 

 prune so as best to develop the fruiting 

 habits of our trees, it is desirable that 

 we should keep clearly in mind an ideal 

 toward which we should work. The 

 ideal fruit tree is one that bears regu- 

 larly large quantities of high-grade 

 fruit and at a reasonably low cost per 

 unit of production. How may proper 

 pruning aid in realizing this ideal"? 

 What are the pruning practices that 

 help or hinder in attaining il, and why 

 do they help or hinder? 



Let us first consider the fruiting 

 habits of the apple. Flowers appear 

 in the spring from buds produced the 

 season before. Not all the winter buds, 

 however, unfold and produce flowers. 



SIMPSON,^ 



H^ BANK BLDO. 

 PORTLAND.OREGON. 



Some give rise to new-shoot growth 

 only. It is often possible to tell from 

 inspection during the fall or winter 

 which buds are to give rise in the 

 spring to flowers and fruit and which 

 to new shoots. If we study the fruit- 

 ing branches of the apple somewhat 

 closely, we will note that in the case 

 of many varieties (e. g. Spitzenberg, 

 Grimes, etc.) flower buds are to be 

 found only upon short woody branches, 

 lateral to the main direction of growth. 

 Such short woody branches we call 

 spurs. In the case of young trees of 

 certain other varieties (e. g. Rome, 

 Gano, etc.) they are to be found for the 

 most part laterally upon the shoots of 

 the past season; though, generally, as 

 trees of these varieties become older 

 they gradually come to bear upon spurs. 

 At first thought it may seem to be a 

 point of little significance that young 

 trees of certain varieties produce their 

 fruit buds, and consequently their fruit, 

 upon shoots instead of spurs, or upon 

 spurs instead of shoots. However, it 

 will be seen to be a matter of consider- 

 able importance, especially with varie- 

 ties that bear only upon spurs, when 

 it is realized that certain pruning prac- 

 tices result in practically eliminating 

 the fruit-spur system from the trees. 

 Other pruning practices that tend 

 greatly to develop the fruit-spur sys- 

 tem and to correspondingly check shoot 



growth may be almost equally harmful 

 for young trees of varieties that at that 

 time bear mainly upon shoots. From 

 these statements it becomes evident that 

 one of the first things the owner of a 

 young orchard should do is to deter- 

 mine by which method the variety or 

 varieties he is growing bears the bulk 

 of its fruit. Since the larger part of 

 our apple varieties produce the bulk 

 of their early crops upon fruit spurs, 

 and since practically all varieties bear 

 their later crops in this manner, this 

 article will concern itself wtih the way 

 in which fruit-spur formation and 

 fruit-spur functioning is influenced by 

 various pruning practices. This is far 

 from stating that the influence of 

 pruning practices upon the formation 

 of lateral buds upon shoots is not im- 

 portant. It is an important question 

 for the owner of a young Rome or 

 Gano orchard to consider, but time will 

 prevent its discussion here. 



If good fruit spurs are so vital to the 

 bearing of satisfactory crops, it be- 

 comes evident that pruning and cul- 

 tural practices should be such as will 

 tend to develoij and maintain an ex- 

 tensive and ellicient fruit-spur system. 

 Let us first inquire as to when and 

 where fruit spurs arise. Do they de- 

 velop on the new growth, on the 

 growth of the past season, or from 

 older wood? Do they develop more 



