FRUIT -BEARING OF APPLE 39 



the apples were not worth picking. At any rate, 

 thf dried apples, shriveled and brown, hang on 

 the twigs in midwinter, and even the birds do not 

 serin to care for them. One of these twigs is 

 drawn in Fig. 18. Let us see how many apples 

 this twig has borne. We can tell by the square- 

 cut scars. An apple was once borne at 1, another 



18. A fruit-spur which 



has borne six apples. 



Half size. 



at 2, another at 4, another at 5, another at 6, 

 and another at 7, and at 7 there will be a scar 

 when the apple falls. Six apples this modest 

 shoot has borne! We may speculate how many 

 of them got ripe, or how many were taken by the 

 worms, or urchins. 



A curious thing happened when the fruit was 

 growing at 2. Two side buds started out, instead 

 of one, and both of them grew the next year. 

 But one of the little branchlets fell sick and died, 

 <)' a bug nipped off its end, or it starved to death; 

 and the grave is still marked by the little stick 



