50 



some of the branches in the center of the tree of the past 

 season's growth, but if a tree has made a normal growth it 

 is probable that summer pruning is not necessary. It is only 

 the trees that are making too much growth on which that is 

 necessary, and I presume that that is just as much of a fault 

 as is too little growth. In the east we have had trouble in 

 getting our trees into bearing early enough, we all admit 

 that. The western growers get their trees into bearing 

 much earlier than we do here. There are arguments in 

 favor of both systems. We have in the east trees that are 

 longer lived. The trees that come into bearing early are 

 usually the shorter lived trees and it may be short sighted 

 policy to induce that early bearing, but as a rule we like to 

 get them started a little earlier than we have been doing in 

 the past, especially for the trees used as fillers. Where we 

 are double-planting our orchards I think it would be well 

 to induce early bearing on the fillers and allow the perma- 

 nent trees to take their normal course and insure long lived 

 trees in that way. 



MR. FRASER OF NEW YORK. Is the Professor sure 

 that the early bearing tree is necessarily a short lived tree? 



PROFESSOR JARVIS. I think it may not be due to 

 the fact that it is early bearing, but evidence is that in the 

 west they are shorter lived than in the east. 



MR. FRASER. But does that prove your contention? 



PROFESSOR JARVIS. Not necessarily, although I 

 think that anyone has noticed that a tree that is weak tends 

 to bear early. In my own experience — and I haven't yet 

 been able to outlive very many apple trees — I know of some 

 apple trees that have always been bearing since they were 

 about six or seven years old, and they have actually borne 

 themselves to death, they have worn themselves out so that 

 anyone can easily see that they are now in the last stage of 

 decrepitude. 



MR. FRASER. Isn 't that the fault of the man that had 

 them? 



PROFESSOR JARVIS. Probably, although there are 



