176 THE PRINCIPLES OF PRUNING 



oped for bearing the succeeding year. Alternate- 

 years' fruit -bearing, therefore, is largely a ques- 

 tion of food supply. If, then, we are to make 

 the tree bear every year, we must supply more 

 food materials to the tree (a subject which is 

 not germane to this treatise) or remove part 

 of the fruit. Removing the fruit affects chiefly 

 the spur on which it is borne ; in large fruits, 

 as a rule, one spur, or one branch of a spur, 

 matures one fruit : therefore, it must follow that 

 if thinning the fruit induces annual bearing in 

 some spur -fruits, it must be because one spur is 

 made to bear one year and another spur to bear 

 another year. That is, there is an alternation in 

 fruit -bearing on the spur, the same as before, 

 but the bearing year of part of the spurs is 

 changed by means of the thinning. It would 

 seem, therefore, that the thinning will have most 

 effect in inducing annual bearing when it removes 

 all the fruits from certain spurs, thereby allowing 

 these spurs to bear in the alternate years. But it 

 is probable that no amount of thinning can pro- 

 duce an annual -bearing habit unless the plants 

 receive other necessary consecutive good care. 

 It is a question if it would not be advisable to 

 change the bearing year of entire plants, thereby 

 allowing part of the trees in an orchard to bear 

 one year and the others to bear the following 

 year. 



It is a fact that the bearing year of fruit trees 



