128 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



latter part of summer, when the water begins to get scarce, the sap 

 becomes of the consistency necessary to the formation of flowers, 

 and the flowers form first where there is the greatest accumulation 

 — so we have apples forming on the fruit spurs. 



What practical use can we make of these facts, if they are facts, 

 in the production of fruit? The principle I stated a few moments 

 ago gives us what I believe to be an important key to the manage- 

 ment of our fruit trees. I said there is a law of relation between 

 growth and the formation of flowers, and where growth takes place 

 flowers cannot form, and where flowers do form growth does not 

 take place. If this is true, and I might produce more evidence to 

 show that it is true, it follows that if we can control growth we can 

 control flowering. The conclusion is logical. It follows also that 

 where we have normal growth we will have normal flowering in the 

 proper season. The flowers will take care of themselves. That 

 brings up the practical question, how can we make the growth 

 normal? Normal growth I will define as the largest amount of 

 growth we can have at the ends of the branches without causing 

 shoots to start out from the older wood. As soon as the shoots 

 start out from the old wood we may call it abnormal growth, because 

 normal growth should be at the ends of the branches largely and 

 not in the older wood. If we have an abnormal amount of growth 

 the shoots that are ready to form flowers will commence growth, 

 hence there will be a loss in the formation of flowers. 



How can we control growth? It is absolutely necessary that 

 we should have a certain amount of growth, because, as I have said, 

 when the bud blossoms it perishes. If we do not have new growth 

 we do not have new buds formed, and our tree will come to an end 

 as fast as the flowers form. It also follows that if we have an ab- 

 normal growth one year and an abnormally large development of 

 flowers the next year, our tree will be checked so we will have to 

 give it time to make up the loss. What we want is a certain health- 

 ful amount of growth every year to furnish flowers for the next year, 

 because these flowers must come from the buds formed on the new 

 growth. This growth needs to come to an end in midsummer to 

 give the flowers a chance to form. Now our business as fruit 

 growers is to apply all our energies toward the maintenance of that 

 regular condition of growth. Of course, we cannot control the 

 climate, but we can modify the effects of climate largely by treat- 

 ment, and we can modify growth by pruning. Some farmers prune 

 once in three or four years and then overprune. The result is an 

 enormous growth of sap sprouts. That is the worst way any one 

 can treat the orchard. How shall we prune? Prune enough each 



