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-l)earing in each of the principal orchard fruits. 



The apple and pear may be discussed together since their 

 l^lan of bearing is practically identical. INTost varieties of these 

 two fruits bear almost altogether on short, crooked little branches, 

 known technically as "fruit spurs." There are some varieties 



Fig. 47. — .\n apple fruit spur. This spur ia perhaps six inches long and has probably 

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



which, particularly when young, bear fruit from lateral buds on 

 the one year wood, and even for terminal buds on this wood, but 

 this is rather uncommon. 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 ripening 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 follow- 

 ing 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 con- 

 tinuing its slow, crooked grow^th for a long series of years. The 



