FRUIT -SPURS OF APPLE 37 



active or dormant for lack of opportunity, and 

 the intermediate buds would have made short 

 branches like 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. In other words, 

 the tree always tries to grow onward from its tips, 

 and these tip shoots eventually become strong 

 branches, unless some of them die in the struggle 

 for existence. What, now, becomes of the little 

 branches lower down ? 



From another apple tree the twig shown in Fig. 

 17 was taken. We see at once that it is very 

 unlike the other. It seems to be two years old, 

 one year's growth extending from the base up to 

 7, and the last year's growth extending from 7 to 

 8 ; but we shall see upon looking closer that this 

 is not so. The short branchlets at 3, 4, 5, 7 are 

 very different from those in Fig. 16. They seem 

 to be broken off. The fact is that the broken 

 ends show where apples were borne in 1896. The 

 branchlets that bore them, therefore, must have 

 grown in 1895, and the main branch, from 1 to 7, 

 grew in 1894. It is plain, from the looks of the 

 buds, that the shoot from 7 to 8 grew during 

 the year 1896. 



Starting from the base, then, we have the main 

 twig growing in 1894; the small side branches 

 growing in 1895; these little branches bearing 

 apples in 1896, and the terminal shoot also grow- 

 ing in 1896. Why was there no terminal shoot 

 growing- in 1895? Simply because its tip de- 

 veloped a fruit -bud (at 7), and therefore could not 



