THE FLOWER BUDS OF OUR FRUIT TREES. 125 



next May on our plum and apple trees were formed in miniature the 

 season before. This fact can easily be demonstrated. If we were 

 to go into our orchards tomorrow with a good lens, we could in a 

 very few moments discover the miniature flowers in the buds that 

 are to open next Alay. The first point that we desire to learn is what 

 time in the season these flower buds are formed. Wt know they are 

 formed the preceding season, but as we do not know the precise time 

 we are unable to prescribe any treatment that would tend to induce 

 the formation of flowers ; so the first question we will consider is, 

 how early are the flower buds formed? 



Before I speak further on this subject I wish to consider the 

 structure of the flower bud and of the leaf bud. Two kinds of buds 

 are recognized in our fruit books, and a knowledge of these two 

 kinds of buds forms the basis of scientific fruit growing. 



All buds are formed as leaf buds, and it is probably true, also, 

 that all buds are capable of becoming flower buds. If "this is true the 

 leaf bud is only one stage in the life of the bud, and the flower bud is 

 a more advanced stage. If every bud were enabled to follow out its 

 full life history it would probably become a flower bud, and after 

 the flower opened the bud would perish. The flower is the last 

 stage in the life of the bud. I wish to have you bear that in mind, 

 because it has an important bearing in relation to our fruit growing. 

 [The speaker here showed lantern slides illustrating flower buds 

 of the apple from the earliest stage at which thev were discernible 

 to the stage when the stamens and pistils were readily discernible.] 



In the SLunmer of 1900 these flower buds began to form the first 

 part of July in the plum and cherry. In the apple they began to 

 form almost two weeks earlier than in the cherry, and in the pear 

 they began at an intermediate time between the apple and the cherry. 

 In the cherry the blossom began to form three or four days earlier 

 this year than last year. It is proposed to carry these observations 

 further. 



We have seen that the flowers begin to form at a particular time 

 on at least four of our fruit trees, and it is an interesting question 

 why they begin at this time. \Miy do they not begin to form at 

 different times in dift'erent fruits ? \\'hy do not buds form flowers 

 as fast as they are old enough? Again, why are flowers so much 

 more numerous some years than others? If the flower is a stage 

 in the life of the bud, why should we not have a regular formation 

 of flowers every year, and the question comes up whether it is pos- 

 sible by any means to treat our trees so as to encourage them to form 

 flowers when we want them. I have studied these questions, and 

 Avhile I do not claim to have solved them all. thev are clearer to me 



