MISCELLANEOUS 



The lay of your land will tell you where to plant the break, 

 and will determine its value. There are few orchards in which 

 a break will not benefit the fruit and trees, besides enhancing 

 the beauty of the place. 



WHEN TREES WILL NOT BEAR 



Here and there throughout the country are many fruit 

 trees of bearing age which never have produced a single fruit, 

 or at most a few imperfect ones. Everything that has been 

 said about the well-being of fruit trees is an answer to the ques- 

 tion, "How can we make these trees bear?" 



First look to the condition of the soil. It may lack moisture, 

 or may be too wet. There may be rock or hard-pan close to 

 the surface, preventing root expansion. The soil may lack 

 some or all the plant-food elements, may lack dead vegetable 

 matter, friendly bacteria, or require a general loosening up 

 to a depth of four or five feet. 



Explode a charge of dynamite under each tree, and three 

 or four others a few feet away. Mulch the surface with a thick 

 covering of vegetable matter, or by keeping a couple inches 

 of dust under the tree. Feed with commercial fertilizer. 



The tree may be growing too fast. In that case reduce the 

 amount of nitrogen. It may be necessary also to reduce the 

 amount of moisture, but this should be avoided, unless there 

 is a decided excess of water, which should be drained away. 



Your trees may lack,, cross-pollination. This is a frequent 

 cause of non-bearing. The remedy is to plant other kinds 

 near-by (see planting section), or top- work bearing trees with 

 one or two branches of other kinds, and the blossoms on these 

 will fertilize those on the rest of the tree. See that trees harbor 

 no scale nor other enemies. 



Girdling sometimes is resorted to with success, as is also 

 notching deeply below fruit spurs. The method of girdling 

 is to press a heavy knife into the bark, making in this way a 

 cut entirely around the tree. This will not kill the tree. Other 

 practices are to take an eighteen-inch strip of bark from the 

 trunk a third or a fourth of the way around the tree; to twist 

 a wire tightly around the main limb or around the trunk; 

 or to prune the roots. This last is done by plowing deeply or 

 digging a ditch partly around the tree. More trees fail to 

 bear from lacking roots than from having too many roots. 



These methods, although sometimes to be advised, seldom 

 are used by practised orchardists. It is much better to produce 

 bearing by handling the soil, supplying proper food, and by 

 proper cutting back. Bearing can be forced just as surely by 

 these methods, and at the same time the trees will receive 

 what they need in other ways. The good effects will thus be 

 permanent, instead of lasting only two or three years. In gen- 

 eral, winter or spring pruning is conducive to growth, while 

 summer pruning leads to bearing. If a tree has not been kept 

 pruned, shaping the head and cutting back will aid in making 

 it bear. 



101 



