( 
BUTLER: ALTERNATE BEARING IN THE APPLE 95 
compensate for the decrease in fertility and death of the spurs 
on the older bearing wood. Pruning may be considered as the 
most potent means of regularizing bearing, in fact the only really 
effective means of accomplishing this object, as Columella* 
pointed out long ago. By pruning one can maintain the proper 
balance between vegetative vigor and reproductive vigor. By 
judicious pruning spurs can be made to develop in proper number 
so as to fully garnish the two-year-old wood and even to form on 
the current season’s growth.j Again the spurs themselves can 
be rendered more productive by judicious pruning.{ 
In conclusion I would lay down the following axiom: To obtain 
regular fruitfulness in apple trees of bearing age the yearly de- 
partures from the mean growth must be small. 
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 
DuryuAaM, NEw HAMPSHIRE 
* Columella, L. J. M. De rei rustica. Venice. 1523. 
+ Van Tieghem, Ph. loc. cit. Baron, loc. cit. 
t Hardy, loc. cit. Forney, loc. cit. 
Sag hice 
