22 CHANGING THE BEARING YEAB. 



CHAPTER VII. 



GRAFTING THE APPLE. 



AGE OF FRITITING ODD- YEAR BEARING TO CHANGE, THE BEAR-= 



ING YEAR — RE-GRAFTING OLD TREES — HOW TO GRAFT — TIME OF 

 GRAFTING. 



Age of Fruiting. — The average age at which the Apple will 

 begin to bear profitable crops of fruit, is from eight to ten years 

 from planting in the orchard ; varying with the variety, the soil in 

 which it is grown and the care it has received. Upon light, poor 

 soil, and in turf land, fruit will be produced much earlier than in 

 a heavier and richer soil. With proper treatment good crops of 

 fruit may be expected for at least fifty years, although the aver- 

 age bearing age of the orchards of the country is probably much 

 less. 



Odd-year Bearing. — In most orchards large crops of fruit 

 are produced only upon alternate years. In northern latitudes 

 the larger crop is borne upon the even year. The cause may be 

 climatic, as severe frosts when the fruit has set or is a little past 

 the blossoming stage. This was illustrated in 1884 in many sec- 

 tions of New England, by a frost the night of June 30th. Upon 

 eastern and southern slopes the petals of the blossoms had fallen, 

 and the fruit was in many cases from one-fourth to one-half of an 

 inch in diameter, and was destroyed; wliile upon the western and 

 northern slopes, the petals had not fallen and the fruit was unin- 

 jured. Those sections where the fruit was destroyed by frost at 

 that time, now promise a large crop ; while the trees that fruited 

 in 1884 are fruitless in 1885. Over-bearing one season may 

 result in the exhaustion of the tree, so that it takes one year for 

 it to recover its strength to produce another crop. Drouth for a 

 succession of years may also bring about the same condition, as 

 may also the depredations of the canker worm and other insects. 

 This condition may be corrected: 



1. By removing a part or all of the fruit the bearing year soon 

 after setting. One operation is often successful, if thoroughly 

 done, but sometimes it must be repeated. It should be practiced 

 upon young trees until the habit desired has become fixed. 



