104 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



December 24, 1831. 



COMMUNICATIONS 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



> )N THE MEANS OF INDUCING FER 

 TILITY IN FRUIT TREES. 



From Lindley's " Quide to the Orthard and Kitchen 

 Garden"] 



Some fruits of excellent quality are bad 

 bearers: this defect is remedied by a variety ] 

 of different methods, soeh as. !. By ringing 

 Ike back ; i. by bending branches downwards ; 

 3. by training ; and 4. by the use of different 

 kinds of stocks.(a) All these practices are 

 intended to produce exactly the same effect ! 

 by different ways. Physiologists know that 

 whatever tends to cause a rapid diffusion of 

 sap and secretions of any plant, causes also 

 the formation of leaf buds instead of flower 

 buds; arid that whatever, on the contrary 

 tends to cause an accumulation of sap and 

 secretions, has the effect of producing flow- 

 er buds in abundunce.(i) This circum- 

 stance. which at first sight seems to be difficult 

 to account for physiologically, is no doubt to 

 be explained in the difference between leaf 

 buds and fruit buds themselves. In a leaf 

 bud, all the appendages or leaves are in a 

 high state of development, and the central 

 part or axis, around which they are arran- 

 ged, has a tendency to extend itself in the 

 form of a branch as soon as the necessary 

 stimulus has been communicated to the sys- 

 tem, by the light and warmth of spring. In 

 a flower bud, 'he appendages or leaves are in 

 that imperfectly formed, contracted state, 

 which we name calyx, corolla, stamens and 

 pistilla ; and the central part around which 

 they are arranged, has no tendency to elon- 

 gate under the influence of the usual stimu 

 his. Hence, a flower bud, or a flower, is 

 nothing but a contracted branch ; as is pro- 

 ved by the occasional elongation of the axis 

 in flowers that expand during unusually hot 

 damp weather late in the spring, becoming 

 branches, bearing sepals and petals instead 

 of leaves. It is, therefore, easily to be un- 

 derstood why, so long as all the motions and 

 secretions of a tree goon rapidly, with vigor, 

 and without interruption, only rudiments of 

 branches, or leaf buds, should be formed ; 

 and why, on the other hand, when the for- 

 mer become languid, and the parts are for- 

 med slowly, bodies of a contracted nature, 

 with no disposition to extension (or flower 

 buds) should appear. 



It will be found that the process of the 

 practices above enumerated, to which the 

 gardener has recourse, in order to increase 

 the feiiility of his fruit trees, is to be ex- 

 plained by what has just been said. In ring- 

 ing fruit trees, a cylinder of bark is cut from 

 the branch, by which means a return of the 

 elaborated juices from the leaves down the 

 bark is cut off, and all that would have been 

 expended below the annular incision is con- 

 fined to the branch above it. This produces 

 an accumulation of proper juice: and flower 

 buds, or fertility, are the result, c) But 

 there is a defect in this practice, to which 

 want of success in many cases is no doubt 

 to be attributed. Although the returning 

 fluid is found to accumulate above the annu- 

 lar incision, yet the ascending sap flows 

 along the alburnum into the buds with 

 nearly as much rapidity as ever, so that the 

 accumulation is but imperfectly produced. — 

 On this account, the second practice, of ben- 

 ding branches downward, is found to be at- 

 'nded with more certain consequences.— 



The effect of turning the branches of a tree 

 from their natural position, to a pundulous 

 or a horizontal one, is to impede both the as- 

 cent and descent of fluids, in a gradual but 

 certain manner. The tissue of which branch- 

 es is composed is certainly feurneable to flu- 

 ids in every direction ; and there can be no 

 doubt that the vital action of the vessels of 

 a plant is performed both in the natural and 

 in an inverted position. So long as that e- 

 rect direction of the branches which is nat- 

 ural to them is exactly maintained, the flow 

 of their fluids, being subject to no interrup- 

 'ions, will take place in the freest pjssible 

 manner ; but the moment this natural direc- 

 tion is deviated from, the vessels become 

 more or less compressed, their a lion is im- 

 peded, and finally, if the inversion is perfect, 

 it becomes so slow that an accumulation of 

 the profuse juices necessarily takes place 

 through every part of the system. (rf) 



One of the objects of training is to pro- 

 duce the same effect. Branches are bent 

 more or less from their natural erect posi- 

 tion; their motion, in consequence of the 

 action of wind upon them, which is known 

 to facilitate the movement of the fluids, is 

 totally destroyed ; and hence arises the ac- 

 cumulation of proper juice which is necessa- 

 rv to their fertility. Nor is the influence of 

 the stock of an essentially different nature. 

 In proportion as the scion and stock ap- 

 proach each other closely in constitution, the 

 less effect is produced by the latter; and, 

 on the contrary, in proportion to the constitu- 

 tional difference between the stock and sci- 

 on, is the effect of the former important. — 

 Thus, when pears are grafted or budded on 

 the weld species, apples upon crabs, plums 

 upon plums, and peaches upon peaches or 

 almonds, the scion is, in regard to fertility, 

 exactly in the same state as if it had not 

 been grafted at all. While, on the other 

 hand, a great increase of fertility is the re- 

 sult of grafting pears upon quinces peaches 

 upon plums, apples upon white thorn, and 

 the like. In these latter cases, the food ab 

 sorbed from the earth by the root of the 

 stock, is communicated slowly and unwil- 

 lingly to the scion : under no circumstances 

 is the communication between the one and 

 the other as free and perfect as if their na- 

 tures had been more nearly the same; the 

 sap is impeded in its ascent, and the proper 

 juices are impeded in their descent, whence 

 arises that accumulation of secretion which 

 is sure to be attended by increased fertility. 

 No other influence than this can be exer- 

 cised by the scion upon the stock. Those 

 who fancy that the contrary takes place — 

 that the quince, for instance, communicates 

 some portion of its austerity to the pear, 

 can scarcely have considered the question 

 physiologically, or they would have seen 

 that the whole of the food communicated 

 from the alburnum of the quince to that of 

 the pear, is in nearly the same state as when 

 it entered the roots of the former. What- 

 ever elaboration it undergoes must take place 

 in the foliage of the pear; where, far from 

 the influence of the quince, secretions natu- 

 ral to the variety go on with no more inter- 

 ruption than if the quince formed no part of 

 the system of the individual.(c) 



(a) Transplanting, and diminishing the sys 

 tem of roots, have also, by lessening the flow of 

 sap, a tendency to induce fruit buds. A sizeable 

 tree often shows blossoms the second vcav after 



being tiansploited, though subsequently it rnaj 

 not bear for some years. J. B. 



(4) Knight's opinion in regard to the formation 

 of wood and fruit buds, is this: That the natural 

 efforts of the mother tree are directed, 1. to the 

 nourishment and perfection of her progeny, th( 

 fruit; 2. to the production of new wood buds, es- 

 sential to the elaboration of food the coining year : 

 and (these labors being finished) 3. to the pro 

 duction of fruit buds for another crop. But as 

 our seasons do not afford time toprrfectall these 

 labors, it happens that many varieties, particular 

 ly those which produce great crops, and earn 

 their fruit late, produce fruit only every other 

 year ; and hence, too, varieties brought from a 

 higher latitude, where the seasons are longer, as 

 the Siberian crab, and the process of vegi 

 d velopment more rapid, become in wanner cli- 

 mates, annual bearers. The varieties that ripen 

 their fruits early, as most of the cherries, plums. 

 i£c. produce fruit every year; except that win .r 

 the crop, is heavy, a barren year, and often tin 

 death of the tree succeeds. J. B. 



(c) I dislike this method. It is robbing one 

 part of the tree of its food to pamper a pet branch 

 Several branches of the plum, experimented upon, 

 died the following year ; and branches of the ap 

 pie broke off with the weight of fruit. J. B. 



(d) These axioms in vegetable physiology will 

 find a confirmation in our orchards and gardens. 

 The pendulous and horizontal branches will be 

 found to abound most in blossoms, and others 

 much in the ratio of their departure from an up 

 right position — those growing erect producing 

 ihe last. Hence a crooked tree (particularly the 

 apple) bears better than a straight tree ; and a fial 

 spreading top is more beautiful than a tall pyra 

 midical one. Hence too the practice of nursery- 

 men, of removing the centre shoot of the apple 

 when it has attained a sufficient height to form a 

 head. J. B. 



(c) In the cultivation of the pear in the London 

 and Edinburgh Horticultural Gardens, advantagi 

 is taken of both of these last methods, for a three- 

 fold purpose, of inducing precosity and fruitful- 

 ness, and of saving ground. Such of this fruit 

 as takes freely, is worked upon the quince, and 

 trained en quenoille, that is, the branches, which 

 are suffered to grow low, are thinned out, and 

 those left bent down so as to assume the form of 

 a distaff, and there fastened. Trained in this 

 way trees are planted four feet apart ; and the pro- 

 duct of a given area of ground is said to be great- 

 er, from dwarfs, in this way, than from stand 

 ards, at the usual distance of planting. 



After all, it would seem to be a law of nature 

 that the food of the young plant, ns well as of thr 

 young animal, shall go exclusively to enlarge and 

 develope the individual, until it has attained tr> 

 natural puberty, and that the contrivances of ait 

 to counteract this law, in inducing precosity, or 

 unnatural fruitfulness, shortens the period of 

 their existence. This also seems to be the tenden : 

 cy of very high feeding and very rich manuring 

 Temperance is as essential to the vegetable as the 

 animal. The great art of managing plants is U- 

 conform them to their natural soil, temperature and 

 habits. The practice which I would urge, from 

 the consideration of the preceding facts, is, that 

 men should plant both dwarf and standard trees 

 — the first for themselves and the last for thei 

 posterity J. B 



