28 



BITTER PIT INVESTIGATION. 



V. LATERALS IN THEIR RELATION TO BITTER PIT. 



What promised to be a very instructive experiment with regard to the fruit borne by laterals 

 was initiated during season 1913-14, but owing to the failure of the crop during the past exceptional 

 season, only one of the varieties bore fruit on the lateral selected. 



Boston Russet was the solitary variety which bore two fruits on the lateral as compared with 

 nine the preceding year, which were all clean when picked. Of the two fruits one was clean when 

 picked and the other (a windfall) was pitted. 



The tree itself only bore eight fruits, of which five windfalls were clean, and of the remaining 

 three which were picked two were clean and one pitted. 



There were twelve fruit spurs on this lateral in July, 1914, but the severe frost of 16th October 

 destroyed most of the blossoms. 



Fourteen trees were selected for this experiment, but the results of a single season cannot be 

 accepted as conclusive. 



VI. EFFECT OF RINGING AND FRACTURING THE BRANCHES. 



The respective branches were ring-barked in six different months in 1912, and the operation 

 was rather severe as about one inch of bark was removed right round. On account of the earliness 

 of the season, the fruit was picked in February instead of March, as in the previous year. 



In no case was the wound completely healed, but the callus from the upper and lower margins 

 had almost met here and there on the branches rung in August and September. On the latter the 

 strongest callus of all had developed, and this had been maintained from the start. 



It is interesting to follow the order in which the ringed branches shed their leaves entirely, as 

 shown in the following table. The last to lose their leaves were those branches which had been the 

 earliest and the latest rung. The remainder of the tree had completely shed its leaves on 8th July, 

 or two months later than the earliest of the rung branches (Fig. 8.): 



TABLE XV. RESULTS OF RINGING THE BRANCHES OF ANNIE ELIZABETH APPLE TREE AT 



BURNLEY HORTICULTURAL GARDENS. 



Date of Ringing. 



28th June, 1912 . . 

 30th July, 1912 . . 

 29th August, 1912 

 30th September, 1912 

 30th October, 1912 

 6th November, 1912 



Total for ringed branches 



Remainder of tree 

 .Windfalls 



Entire tree 



Check tree 

 Windfalls 



118 



84 

 132 



216 

 334 



71 



40 

 15 



55 

 126 



189 



124 

 147 



271 

 460 



37 



32 

 10 



20 



27 



8th July 



35 



131 



26 



