FLOWER BUDS OF APPLES 269 



between the various nutritive elements appear to exert some 

 influence on fruit bud development. 



Pickett investigated the effect of soil management on forma- 

 tion of fruit buds of the Baldwin apple. The results of the fir.sv 

 paper (27) whicli were largely drawn from maci'oscopie study 

 indicate that clean tillage induces the formation of many more 

 fruit buds than sod culture. The two most important factors 

 stimulating fruit bud production were, moisture and nitrogen, 

 the nitrogen being added to the soil in the form of a cover crop. 



Krans (20) in his investigations on the morphology of the 

 apple, in 1913 carefully worked out the development of the 

 flower parts. In the summary he states that "All parts of the 

 flower are cyclic in arrangement and that the succession of cycles 

 is acropetal.'' 



Kraus (21 and 22) describes the manner in which flower bu':ls 

 may be borne, in regard to the type of branch or spur. He 

 further explains the injury to the fruit-bearing power of a tree 

 caused by heading back in winter or thinning out and advocates 

 summer pruning to- increase the number of fruit bu Is. Con- 

 sidering" the factors causing fruit bud formation hi^ states, 

 ''Pruit bud formation is directly induced and the buds are 

 dependent upon the conditions existing within the tree, a id not 

 by 'any system that may be hotly agitatei today and abandoned 

 tomorrow. ' ' 



Bradford (4) in 1914 conducted investigations to determine 

 the relation between the development and the position of buds 

 on the tree of Yellow Newton. He found that fruit buds were 

 differentiated earlier on spui-s than on spriiis. The buds of old 

 spui*s that produced no flowers the spring of the current year 

 showed the most uniformity in development. On those spurs 

 which produced flowers the current year the buds showed much 

 variation in development, but most variaticn in eases where the 

 floAvers failed to produce fruit. 



A short consideration of the variation in the varieties was 

 undertaken with the result that a wide range in the develop- 

 ment of fniit buds was discovered, and attributed to varietal 

 and individual factors. 



Gourley (14) after his investigation to determine tlie response 

 of the Baldwin apple tree to cultural treatments, states that the 

 plots in the experiment where the moisture ran the lowest during 

 the period of fruit bud formation, coupled v.ith good growinu' 



