10 



BULLETIN 623, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the orchard or its abbreviation. This system can be adapted to 

 the conditions in any orchard and to any method of orchard manage- 

 ment. For instance, in one of the orchards where investigational 

 performance-record plats are located it was found desirable by the 

 owner to subdivide certain plats rather than to give each such sub- 

 division a separate plat number. This explains the use of the num- 

 bers 7: 1, 7: 2, etc., as plat designations in tree numbers in some of 

 the following tables. 



In the case of bearing trees, this number can be painted on the 

 tree trunk or on one of the main limbs, arranging the number in a 



vertical column in the 

 form shown in figure 1. 

 A common lettering 

 brush and pure white- 

 lead paint are best 

 adapted for this purpose. 

 Very young trees on 

 which space is not avail- 

 able for painting the 

 number may be num- 

 bered by stamping or 

 painting the number on a 

 metal or other tag and 

 attaching it to the tree. 

 The tree numbers are 

 always placed in the same 

 relative position on all of 

 the trees in the orchard, 

 for convenience in find- 

 ing them. Large, dis- 

 tinct figures are made, 



Fig. 1.— Arrangement of the individual tree number on the trunk SO that they are easily 





of a tree. 



legible. 



TREE MARKERS. 



Each individual tree in the performance-record plats is marked 

 several weeks before picking with streamers of white cotton cloth 

 (see figs. 3, 4, and 6), in order that the regular orchard crew will under- 

 stand that they are not to be picked. Several streamers, about 

 1 inch wide and 3 feet long, • re tied to projecting limbs on all sides 

 of the trees as high as can be reached conveniently. These markers 

 are renewed every season. 



PICKING. 



The picking of the performance-record trees is done by trained 

 men, and, so far as possible, the same men are used year after year 



