THE CANADIAN HORTICULTUKIbT, 105 



BARREN PLUM TREES. 



An esteemed correspondent writes, "I have a number of plum trees 

 old enough to bear fruit but which yield none. What plan would you 

 recommend to promote or hasten fructification ?" 



It is well known to experienced fruit growers that the wood 

 producing forces of a tree are in some degree antagonistic to the 

 fruit producing, and hence when a tree is rapidly making wood it bears 

 Imt little or no fruit. It may be that our correspondent's trees are in 

 that condition, and that by reason of the richness of the soil, or the 

 application of stimulating fertilizers, and that perhaps for a very different 

 purpose, such as the growing of garden produce, the trees are kept in a 

 condition of active growth, and hence its energies, so to speak, are 

 exhausted in the production of wood and leaves instead of fruit. If 

 tliis be the case, the remedy is to be sought in the use of some means 

 whereby the tendency to produce wood may be checked. Tliis can be 

 done by withholding fertilizers, if any have been applied, either to the 

 tree or to the soil witliin roach of the roots. If the soil be naturally 

 so rich as to produce strong wood growth, or it be inconvenient to 

 cease using the ground within reach of the roots for garden purposes, 

 the growth of the tree may be checked by digging a trench around the 

 tree at a sufficient distance from the trunk to prevent too severe a 

 shock to its growth, and to a sufficient depth to cut off the feeding 

 roots, and so diminish the supply of stimulating food. This check to 

 the growth of a tree will often at once produce a change, and throw it 

 into bearing. The like effect is sometimes produced by bending down 

 the limbs, and fastening them in a horizontal position. This checks 

 the rapid upward flow of the sap and induces the formation of fruit 

 buds. Another method, but one that requires much care lest perma- 

 nent injury result therefrom, is to bind some ligature tightly 'around 

 some of the branches, and in this way hinder the flow of the sap 

 sufficiently to arrest the rapid growth and induce fruiting. Such 

 ligatures will need to be carefully watched, and not allowed to remain 

 long enough to injure the limbs by cutting too deeply. 



Some varieties of plum, apple, pear, &c., do not come to fruit bear- 

 ing age as early as others, and though the trees may seem large enough 

 to bear large crops, they have not yet reached that degree of maturity 

 requisite to the production of fruit. The Northern Spy Apple tree 



