FRUIT-BUD FORMATION 51 



in manifestation but antagonistic in nature. This position, 

 however, is scarcely tenable because the so-called fruit-spurs 

 and buds and even many of the fruits themselves are, in 

 their first inception and development, as truly vegetative as 

 the new shoots and branches. It is a fact, however, that 

 under extreme conditions of vegetative extension, little or 

 no blooming occurs; and, conversely, it is possible to check 

 the growth of a tree and bring about an increased bloom. 

 It is, of course, obvious that vegetative precedes the so- 

 called reproductive growth, for the tree must attain some 

 size before fruitage can be maintained. It is, nevertheless, 

 convenient to distinguish between the type of growth which 

 goes to maintain the tree as an individual and effect the 

 extension of its branches, and the tj'^pe which primarily 

 functions as the fruit-producing area, thus permitting the 

 use somewhat broadly of the terms vegetative and reproduc- 

 tive tendencies. 



Jost ^ says, "All factors which tend to advance foliage 

 development are unfavorable to flower production and 

 vice versa. " The experimental evidence in this country is not 

 in line with this doctrine but rather clearly establishes that, 

 in general, strong growth is a natural concomitant of high 

 production and conversely that meagre growth is associated 

 with low yield. Or, as it has been expressed, "mere vegeta- 

 tive extension and fruitfulness are not separate and distinct 

 functions of the plant but each is an external expression of 

 an internal condition. " ^ it should be conceived that 

 increased fruitage may parallel increased vegetation or it 

 may parallel decreased vegetation, depending on the starting 

 point. The causes for this seeming anomaly are discussed 

 later. 



1 Jost, L. Lectures on Plant Physiologj\ (Eng. Trans.) p. 364. 

 = Kraus, E. J., and H. R. Kraybill. Ore. Agr. Exp. Sta. BuU. 149. 

 1918. 



