I^Eitori^l ^0tjes and ^ommtnts 



HOW FRUIT BUDS ARE MADE. 



THE common, notion that fruit buds 

 are structurally distinct from leaf 

 buds is questioned by Mr, E. S. 

 Goff (American Garden, igoi). He claims 

 to have abundant evidence that leaf and 

 flower buds are in a measure interchange- 

 able; and that by proper pruning a flower 

 bud may become a leaf bud, and that, by 

 ringing, a leaf bud may become a flower bud. 

 Of course we all know the fact, without 

 knowing the philosophy of it, that ringing, 

 or wrinkling the bark, tends to the forma- 

 tion of fruit buds ; and that dry weather is 

 also conducive to the same, but why? Be- 

 cause such conditions are restrictions on the 

 movement of the prepared food in the 

 branches, and the surplus water in the sap 

 is thrown up through the leaves, and the re- 

 mainder becomes concentrated and rich in 



prepared food. Whenever, then, the water 

 supply is increased, the tendency is towards 

 growth and to the formation of leaf buds ; 

 and a decrease in the water supply, for the 

 reason given above, tends to make flower 

 buds. 



Another significant fact is that as soon as 

 'active wood and leaf growth ceases, the for- 

 mation of fruit buds begins, and may con- 

 tinue until cold weather sets in. This would 

 encourage the present system of our best 

 fruit growers, who cease cultivation in July 

 or August, and seed the ground to a cover 

 crop, thus causing early maturity of wood 

 before cold weather. If a tree were too 

 much inclined to wood growth, and too little 

 to fruit production, it is evident that the ear- 

 lier in the summer that cultivation ceases 

 and the cover crop is sown, the more hope 

 of a crop of fruit the succeeding year. 



Fig. 2599. Exi'ERiMENTAL Plum Orchard at John Mitchells, Clarksburg, 



Showing Clean Cultivation, Ready for Cover Crop. 



