276 THE ESSENTIALS OF AGRICULTURE 



12. What is the relation of pruning to fruitf ulness ? 



13. When and under what conditions should the orchard be thoroughly 

 cultivated ? 



14. What precautions should be observed in picking apples and pears? 



15. How is fruit stored in your locality? in commercial concerns? Can 

 you suggest improved methods of storing fruit ? 



16. From what sources do the apples come that are sold in your 

 markets ? 



EXERCISES 



1. Secure three similar apples and weigh them accurately. Place 

 one where it is constantly exposed to the air of the schoolroom. With 

 a cloth rub from another all of the oily material from the apple skin 

 and place this apple beside the first, but rub it again each day. Cut 

 the third apple into halves and place the pieces beside the other 

 apples. Weigh the three apples from day to day, and determine and 

 explain the relative loss in weight from each. 



2. If a farmer near your school will cooperate, select an apple tree 

 on his farm, prune and cultivate and spray it, and write a record of 

 what you "have done. Leave this record in a schoolbook for this pur- 

 pose, and let each succeeding class follow the same plan, each class 

 recording the result shown on the tree's production of apples. This 

 plan may be adopted with profit for other kinds of trees if there is 

 available opportunity for experimental work. 



3. Transplant some fruit trees to the school grounds, even though 

 they cannot remain there to grow permanently. Make sure that 

 proper methods of planting and pruning are used. 



4. Study fruiting branches of the various fruit trees cut in winter. 

 Observe the difference between the large, blunt, globular, hairy fruit 

 buds and the small, flat, pointed wood buds. Note the location of the 

 fruit buds on the tree. Contrast the position of the fruit buds of the 

 peach (on the long, new whips at the outer extremities of the limbs) 

 with that of the fruit buds of the apple or pear (on the short fruit 

 spurs farther back in the tree). Locate the fruit scars where apples 

 or pears have been borne in previous years. (If a fruit reached ma- 

 turity the scar will be large and prominent, while if the fruit dropped 

 prematurely the scar will be smaller.) Can you tell on what years 

 an apple or pear tree has borne fruit by observing the fruit scars on 



