The Canadian Horticulturist. 351 



FRUIT SPURS AND FRUIT TREES. 



E know that fruit spurs are short twigs growing on the sides of limbs 

 or branches of fruit trees. They are not sprouts nor branches, 

 nor limbs. They consist simply of spurs, from one to several 

 inches in length, terminating with one or many fruit buds. When 

 they are not broken, or pruned off, these spurs appear on the 

 bodies of every limb and branch of a fruit tree. Dame Nature 

 is an expert pomologist, hence she covers every limb of a tree 

 with fruit spurs. There is a scientific reason for producing fruit spurs, and there 

 are also plausible reasons why they should not be broken off. Dame Nature 

 produces them so that the leaves on them may shade the bare surface of limbs, 

 and thus protect the sap and cambium from being scalded and baked by the 

 intense heat of a summer sun. I have often observed the upper side of large 

 limbs, from which all these spurs had been broken off, that were as dry and 

 dead as if the surface had been scorched by a fire. The burning sun caused 

 this damage. All the fruit spurs had been sawed, or cut or jammed off by the 

 feet of those who were climbing in the tree top. 



Dame Nature produces these short spurs for an important purpose — namely, to 

 bear fruit. In this scientific arrangement we perceive wonderful wisdom. When 

 there are several apples or pears on a spur they will be less liable to be blown 

 off by high winds than if they were hanging to the end of a limb or long twig. 

 When most of a crop hangs at the ends of long and slender branches, a large 

 portion will be jerked off by the rapid and continuous swaying of the branches 

 during driving storms and tempestuous winds. Now then, we have a few 

 important facts for the consideration of every person who owns only one fruit 

 tree. There is no doubtful speculation about them. They are bed-rock facts 

 which cannot be controverted. I have been familiar with them from early boy- 

 hood. Whenever I have pruned fruit trees, my invariable practice has been to 

 spare the fruit spurs. Instead of sawing or cutting them all off one limb, I 

 always leave enough to shade every branch, if possible, from the body of the 

 tree to the extremities of the limbs. When climbing about in a tree top, I always 

 spare the fruit spurs as much as possible. When plucking fruit, instead of 

 pulling them off, fruit and all, and then separating the fruit from the spurs and 

 throwing the latter to the ground, I always separate the fruit from the spurs with 

 care, so as to avoid all injury or damage to the buds on the spurs. These buds 

 are the embryo of the fruit for the next year. If the buds are broken off the tree 

 will yield no fruit the next season. Every spur that is broken off this year lessens 

 or damages the crop for next season. Cherry trees are frequently badly damaged 

 by clawing off these fruit spurs, fruit and all, and thus throwing the crop for the 

 next year to the ground. I have often seen the ground literally covered with 



