120 



PRUNING 



little crooked spurs along its branches, but insisted in clearing 

 them off to make the tree look more neat. Figure 46 shows an 

 excellent example of a young apple tree which has been thus 

 started on the wrong road, and Figure 94 shows an old orchard 

 which has travelled that road for years, in fact it has travelled 

 it so long that it would be difficult to get it onto any other 

 road. 



In view of the importance of this side of the question, it may 

 be worth while to begin by summing up briefly the method of 

 fruit-bearing in each of the principal orchard fruits. 



The apple and pear may be discussed together since their 

 plan of bearing is practically identical. These two fruits bear 

 almost altogether on short, crooked little branches, known techni- 



FIQ. 47. An apple fruit spur. This spur is perhaps six inches long and has probably 

 borne five apples. Yet many pruners systematically cut them off the trees. 



cally as " fruit spurs." An apple spur is shown in Figure 47. 

 This particular spur has a terminal bud on each of two very 

 short branches. In the spring these buds expand and produce a 

 number of leaves, perhaps a half dozen, surrounding from four 

 to six blossoms. Under normal conditions one of these blossoms 

 sets a fruit and the balance fall away. The growing and ripen- 

 ing of this apple takes about all the strength of the spur, but it 

 usually manages to develop at one side a small leaf bud which 

 the following year makes a very short growth in a new direction 

 and at the end of the season produces another large, plump 

 terminal bud. The following year this bud bears an apple, and 

 so on. We thus have the spur bearing an apple every alternate 

 year and continuing its slow, crooked growth for a long series 

 ,of years. The spur shown in Figure 47 was about ten years old 



