38 THE FRUIT - SPUR 



send out a branch ; for there are two kinds of 

 buds, the small, pointed leaf -bud and the thick, 

 blunt fruit -bud. If the branchlets, 3, 4, 5, 7, are 

 two years old, the dormant buds 1, 2 must be 

 the same age. That is, for two long years these 

 little buds have been waiting for some bug to eat 

 off the buds and leaves above, or some accident 

 to break the shoot beyond, so that they might 

 have a chance to grow; but they have waited in 

 vain. 



We have now found, therefore, that the little 

 side shoots upon apple twigs may become fruit- 

 branches or fruit- spurs, while the more ambitious 

 branches above them are making a display of 

 stem and leaves. 



But will these fruit -spurs bear fruit again in 

 1897 ? No. The bearing of an apple is hard 

 work, and these spurs did not have enough vi- 

 tality left to make fruit -buds for the next year; 

 but they must perpetuate themselves, so that they 

 have sent out small side buds, which will bear a 

 cluster of leaves and grow into another little spur- 

 in 1897, and in that year these new spurs will 

 make fruit-buds for bearing in 1898. The side 

 bud is plainly seen on spur 5, also on spur 4, 

 while spur 7 has sown a seed, so to speak, in the 

 bud at 6. It is, therefore, plain why the tree 

 bears every other year (see page 32, Figs. 13, 14). 



There was one tree in the orchard from which 

 the farmer had not picked his apples. Perhaps 



