CHAPTER XIII 



THE FRUITING OF TREES IN CONSECUTIVE 



SEASONS (Report XV, i) 



POINTS of considerable interest, both scientific and practical, 

 are raised by the question as to whether a tree which fruits 

 exceptionally well as compared with its fellows in one season, will 

 tend to fruit exceptionally well, or the reverse, in the following 

 season. We know of no definite reason why the behaviour of 

 a tree as regards fruiting should alternate in consecutive years, 

 and no such behaviour has been observed in the case of animals. 

 Its doing so would imply that fruiting is due to the gradual 

 accumulation of some substance in the tree, which becomes 

 exhausted whenever heavy bearing occurs, and that the stock of 

 this substance does not become properly replenished till after 

 another season has elapsed. This is quite possible, and seems to 

 be in harmony with known cases where fruiting occurs only at 

 intervals of several years; but that anything of the sort takes 

 place with apples, or other ordinary fruit trees, has not yet been 

 proved. Indeed such an alternation seems, from one point of view, 

 to be actually opposed to the well-established fact that growth and 

 fruiting are antagonistic to each other ; for the exceptionally feeble 

 growth which accompanies exceptionally heavy cropping, must 

 tend, as all restriction of growth does, to the formation of an 

 increased number of blossom-buds for the following season, and 

 probably, therefore, to heavy cropping also ; unless, of course, the 

 cropping has been so heavy as to seriously impair the vigour of 

 the tree, an excessive condition which need not be considered at 

 present. We might, further, actually expect similar behaviour as 

 regards fruiting in consecutive years, on the general' ground that 

 individual trees must differ from each other in fertility, as in 

 every other respect. On the other hand, there is a strong, and, 

 apparently, well-founded belief amongst horticulturists that a 

 tendency to alternate fruiting, as it may conveniently be termed, 

 does really exist, at any rate, in the case of certain kinds and 

 varieties of fruits ; so much so, that the recommendation is often 

 made, to severely thin the fruit from a tree which is bearing 



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