THE FRUITING OF TREES IN CONSECUTIVE 



SEASONS. 



By spencer PICKERING, M.A., F.R.S. 



{Wohurn Experimental Fruit Farm.) 



Points of considerable interest, both scientific and practical, are 

 raised by the question as to whether a tree which fruits exceptionally 

 well as compared with its fellows in one season, will tend to fruit 

 exceptionally well, or the reverse, in the following season. We know 

 of no definite reason why the behaviour of a tree as regards fruiting should 

 alternate in consecutive years, and no such behaviour has been observed 

 in the case of animals. Its doing so would imply that fruiting is due 

 to the gradual accumulation of some substance in the tree, which 

 becomes exhausted whenever heavy bearing occurs, and that the stock 

 of this substance does not become properly replenished till after another 

 season has elapsed. This is quite possible, but quite unproven. Indeed 

 it seems to be actually opposed to the well established fact that growth 

 and fruiting are antagonistic to each other ; for the exceptionally feeble 

 growth which accompanies exceptionally heavy cropping, must tend, 

 as all restriction of growth does, to the formation of an increased number 

 of blossom-buds for the following season, and probably, therefore, to 

 heavy cropping also, during that following season ; unless of course, 

 the cropping has been so heavy as to seriously impair the vigour of the 

 tree; but this is an excessive condition which need not be considered 

 here. We might also expect similar behaviour as regards fruiting in 

 consecutive years, on the general grounds that individual trees must 

 differ from each other in fertility, as in every other respect. On the 

 other hand, there is a strong belief amongst horticulturists that a 

 tendency to alternate fruiting, as it may conveniently be termed, does 

 really exist; so much so, that the recommendation is often made, 

 to severely thin the fruit from a tree which is bearing heavily, with the 

 object of destroying this tendency, and of obtaining moderate and 

 more uniform bearing in future years. 



One observation which lends some support to such a view is that 

 the prevention of a young tree from bearing for a year or two after 



