26 POMOLOGY 



growth or development in the short spur, especially after 

 it becomes old, is apparently centered largely in the terminal 

 bud, whether this is a leaf- or flower-bud.^ 



28. Fruiting of the apple. — The development of spurs in 

 the apple can be seen in Fig. 4. Several are already short 

 fruit-spurs and others may or may not develop from the 

 short tenninal spurs which have produced only a leaf-bud 

 at the terminus. In this case, all the lateral buds and the 

 terminal one on the one-year growth are leaf-buds; on the 

 two-year wood there are four fruit- and five leaf-buds shown 

 in the drawing; and on the three-year wood are four fruit- 

 and two leaf-buds, indicating that none of them behaved in 

 their second year as occurred above, for no flowers were 

 produced on the spurs before. This, then, may be con- 

 sidered one type of fruit-spur formation on the apple. 

 Since they are yet unbranched, they may be termed "sim- 

 ple spurs." 



In Fig. 5 is shown a second type of fruiting habit of the 

 apple. In this case, the one-year wood has produced both a 

 tenninal and axillary (or lateral) fruit-buds. They can be 

 clearly distinguished by their size. This type of flowering 

 is very connnon with the apple and pear. This is a case of 

 fruit-bud formation without a spur being first developed, 

 for only one leaf subtended these buds and hence they are, 

 by definition, axillaiy. The student should make close 

 observations, however, for it is not unusual to find a very- 

 short spur (sessile) on the one-year wood, having produced 

 only two or three leaves, and hence a fruit-bud in such a 



' The author observed for several years the results of "disbudding" 

 spurs by partridge or grouse {Bonasa umhellus, L.). The terminal buds 

 of the short spurs were broken off throughout certain trees in an orchard 

 and the question arose as to how long it would be before the spurs were 

 again sufficiently developed to produce fruit-buds. The results were 

 rather uniform in that about 80 per cent of these spurs died. 



