INFLUENCE OF SPRAYS ON THE FRUITING OF THE TREES. 119 

 COMPARATIVE SIZE OF FRUIT ON SPRAYED AND UNSPRAYED TREES. 



Owing to the fullness of the records obtained relative to the weight 

 and numl)er of peaches gathered from the sprayed and iinsprayed 

 trees in the preseat experiments, it is possible to learn the compara- 

 tive average weight of the fruit produced on treated and untreated 

 trees. It might seem that the unsprayed trees, having to mature on 

 an average 2'.>l.3 peaches per tree, would yield larger fruit than tiie 

 sprayed tr(>es, which had to maturi^ 1>4J>.2 peaches per tree; in other 

 words, that the increased number of peaches upon sprayed over 

 unsprayed trees would, to a considerable extent, Ije counterbalanced 

 by an increase in the size of the fruit on the lightly loaded unsprayed 

 trees. It has l)een found, however, that where the conditions for vig- 

 orous growth of a tree are present, and where the fruit upon a tree is 

 so thinned that the tree is not overloaded, the peaches of the full- 

 bearing tree are practically as large when mature as arc those of the 

 tree which has lost much of the ci-op from curl. The following tal)le 

 has been compiled from the facts in hand upon this matter. It is 

 shown in this table that the fruit from the sprayed trees averaged 

 for the whole ])lock (345.3 trees) 299.0344 peaches per 100 pounds, and 

 the fruit from the unspraj'^ed trees averaged for the whole block 

 (228.9 trees) 299.0312 peaches per 100 pounds. This shows that the 

 gain in size of peaches on unsprayed trees over those on sprayed trees, 

 as determined by the average munber of peaches to lOO pounds, is 

 roWoTF pel" cent, or only about ^oVo f^^^' i percent. This aaiouuts to 

 nothing from a practical standpoint. 



Table 31. — Size of fruit on sprayed and unsprayed trees as determined by the average 



number of peaches per 100 pounds. 



Sprayed ... 

 Unsprayed. 



Nnm- 

 ber 



of 

 trees 



in 

 block 



345. 3 

 •228. 9 



Fruit 



produced 



by all trees 



of block. 



First 

 pick- 

 ing. 



Lbs. 

 95,t)94 



19,035 



Sec- 

 ond 

 I)ick- 

 ing. 



Lbs. 

 14,504 



3,257 



Average 



production 



per tree. 



First 

 pick- 

 ing. 



Lbs. 

 275.4 



83.2 



Sec- 

 ond 

 pick- 

 ing. 



Average number of 

 peaches — 



Per 

 100 pounds. 



First 

 pick- 

 ing. 



Lbs. 

 42 293. 2 



14.2 



293.6 



Sec- 

 ond 

 pick- 

 ing. 



337.4 



330.8 



Per tree. 



First 

 pick- 

 ing. 



807.5 



244.3 



Sec- 

 ond 

 pick- 

 ing. 



Proportion- 

 ate 

 percentage 

 yield 

 of trees. 



141.7 



47 



First 

 pick- 

 ing. 



86.8 



85.4 



Sec- 

 ond 

 pick- 

 ing. 



13.2 



14.6 



Aver- 

 age 

 num- 

 ber of 

 peaches 

 per 100 

 pounds 

 per 

 tree 



299. 0344 



299.0312 



Average 



per- 

 centage 

 of gain 

 in size 

 of fruit 

 on un- 

 sprayed 

 trees over 

 that of 

 sprayed 

 trees. 



106 



100000 



per cent, 



or about 



1 



1000 



ofl per 



cent. 



It should not be understood by the above that a crop of 950 peaches 

 draws no more heavily upon a tree than a crop of 300 peaches when 

 other conditions are equal. All observation tends to show that such 

 is not the case. A tree too heavily loaded will often produce 



