THE FLOWER BUDS OP OUR FRUIT TREES. 129 



year so that the Hght can shine between the branches to enable the 

 buds to form flowers, but do not prune enough to stintlilate an ex- 

 cessive growth in any part of the tree. Remember if you over- 

 prune you postpone fruitage by interrupting the formation of flower 

 buds. We can also modify growth by the use of fertilizers. I have 

 said that growth should take place early in the season. We should 

 fertilize in such a way as to stimulate early growth but not late 

 growth ; that is, we should apply some quick acting fertilizer early 

 in the season. Whatever fertilizer we use on our apple trees should 

 be in a thoroughly decomposed condition. Again, if we wish our 

 trees to make rapid growth, they should be full of water in the 

 spring. In our climate we usually have a dry autumn and some- 

 times dry winters. Our trees should have plenty of water during 

 autumn, winter and spring. How to give them this is a question 

 for each orchardist to settle for himself. The windmill can be 

 brought into use in some cases. In the fall evaporation is slow, and 

 we can use a windmill to advantage. 



I wish to speak briefly of the effect of root killing on fruitage. 

 Recent observations lead to the conclusion that root killing occurs 

 to a" greater or less extent nearly every winter. Root killing is the 

 same to the tree as root pruning. I do not know that it makes any 

 •difference to the tree whether the roots are frozen off or cut off. 

 The tendency of root killing is to cut off' a part of the water supply 

 of the tree and hence to check growth and to stimulate fruitage. 

 This is probably one reason why our fruit trees do not grow so large 

 here as in the east. We do not want to check the growth early in 

 the spring, and so root killing is a disadvantage, but it probably tends 

 to fruitfulness. 



We can control the water supply during the summer to some 

 extent by cultivation. Suppose we have a wet April or May, as we 

 sometimes do. There is danger that the trees may remain full of 

 water too long, and we would rather not have an abnormal growth 

 of wood as it would tend to cut off our flower crop. By deep culti- 

 vation and keeping the ground rough, we can do something toward 

 ■drying off the ground. On the other hand, if the ground is dry and 

 we are afraid the trees are not going to get a normal amount of 

 growth, we can modify the condition by keeping the surface of the 

 ground fine and smooth. Suppose June is a wet month and we are 

 afraid our trees will continue growing too long. We can check the 

 growth by running a subsoil plow between the rows in both direc- 

 tions. Thus we can control very largely the water supply to our 

 trees. There are some dry seasons when we are at a loss to know 

 how to supply sufficient water and our trees are suffering, but those 

 seasons do not come very often. 



