166 THE PRINCIPLES OP PRUNING 



able or fixed habit of the plant. It is interesting 

 to note that the habit of alternate bearing is most 

 pronounced in plants of long life, suggesting that 

 the habit is largely, if not wholly, the result of 

 the frequent occurrence of over -bearing while the 

 plant was young. Apples and pears are par- 

 ticularly given to alternate bearing, plums and 

 peaches less so, bush -fruits still less, and strawber- 

 ries not at all. It is a question, therefore, if any 

 treatment can set some old orchards into annual 

 bearing. The habit of alternate cropping may 

 have become too fixed to be changed; and, at all 

 events, pruning is only one of the means of over- 

 coming and correcting the habit (see Section 14). 

 Although it is a cardinal principle in horticul- 

 ture that checking growth induces fruitfulness, it- 

 is only a means of inducing a bearing habit; and 

 when this habit has once been secured, every 

 effort should be exerted to maintain it. It does 

 not follow, however, that trees of slow growth are 

 necessarily most fruitful. The most fruitful apple 

 tree I know is one which has made a very heavy 

 growth from the beginning ; but the bearing 

 habit was early induced by good tillage and good 

 feeding, and the extra growth enables it to bear 

 the more fruit. This bearing habit, as I have 

 said (page 163), is sometimes a matter of individ- 

 uality in the plant, sometimes a question of va- 

 riety, and oftener a question of good and rational 

 care begun when the plant is young, 



