COMPARATIVE DEVELOPMENT OK FRUIT BUDS AND SPURS. 99 



In the preceding tables, the num])er of shoots and spurs of IS93, 

 which arose from wood of 1892 or earlier (old wood), as well as the 

 length of the old wood itself, are classed under the general head of 

 new growth from old wood. The measurements of the growth of 

 1893, and the luunber of lateral shoots and fruit spurs, as well as the 

 number of fruit and leaf buds the new growth produced, are classed 

 under the head of new wood. The buds were counted in a uniform 

 manner upon all growth measured, except the buds borne by fruit 

 spurs, which are estimated at 3 l)uds per spur in the taliulated calcula- 

 tions whicli follow. The fruit buds have been divided into two classes — 

 well developed and poorh' developed. 



In considering the information given in the preceding tables, only 

 those facts having a direct bearing on the fruit buds of the sprayed 

 and unsprayed trees will be taken up under this heading. Those 

 relating to length of new growth, iumi])er of new shoots, and number 

 of leaf buds have already been considered under the preceding head- 

 ing of this chapter. 



The following digest from the general tal)les shows that 23,879 fruit 

 buds of all kinds were produced ])y the new growth arising from 8,255 

 linear inches of old wood on 10 sprayed trees in 1893— an average of 

 2.892 buds per inch of old wood. The average number of buds per 

 inch of old wood on the 10 unsprayed trees, obtained in a similar man- 

 ner, was 2.686. These figures show that the sprayed trees produced 

 7f per cent more fruit buds of all kinds in the sunuuer of 1893 than 

 were produced by the unsprayed trees. These were fruit buds for 

 the crop of 1894, and upon trees bearing a full crop in 1893, while the 

 contrasted unsprayed trees bore very little. 



Table 16. — Gain in total number of fruit buds on sprayed trees. 



Records. 



Length of old wood, measured in inches, on sprayed and unsprayed trees . . . 



Total number of fruit buds of all kinds 



Average number of same to inch 



Gain in favor of sprayed trees per cent. 



Trees. 



The percentage of gain in the gross number of fruit buds shown by 

 the sprayed trees is considerable, but it represents only partially the 

 advantages derived from the spray. Examinations of the unsprayed 

 trees showed that a large percentage of the fruit buds they had pro- 

 duced in 1893 were imperfect, many of them being so poorly developed 

 that fruit could not be expected from them. The following table shows 

 the average number of imperfectly developed fruit buds on the sprayed 

 trees to be 0.944 per linear inch of old wood, while on the unsprayed 

 trees the average per inch of old wood was 1.249. This shows 32 per 

 cent more imperfect fruit buds on the unsprayed than upon the sprayed 

 trees at the close of the growing season of 1893. 



