8 RATIONAL FRUIT CULTURE. 



surface. Of course, the influence of the weather cannot be 

 entirely eliminated. A summer may be so cold and wet that 

 the wood cannot ripen, and the formation of many flower-buds 

 is rendered impossible, but in a well-managed orchard the 

 effects of unfavourable weather will be much less noticeable 

 than elsewhere. 



THE EFFECT OF A HEAVY CROP. 



At the same time, it would be unreasonable to expect 

 any tree, no matter how carefully it is cultivated, to bear good 

 crops year after year. If it does so in alternate years, its 

 owner should be very well satisfied. The flowering of a 

 Rhododendron or Azalea will illustrate the point clearly. If 

 the flowel-s are allowed to develop seed-pods, the sap continues 

 to pass into the pods for a long time, and in consequence no fresh 

 growth starts on the shoots carrying them, or if it starts it does 

 not do so until so late in the season that it cannot ripen properly, 

 and is incapable of bearing flowers in the following 3-ear. If, 

 however, the flowers are taken off when they wither, the sap- 

 current, prevented from entering them, forces fresh channels 

 for itself by starting some of the wood-buds, and this new 

 growth, having plenty of time to ripen, flowers in due course. 

 This will explain what happens in fruit-trees, though their 

 manner of flowering is not quite the same. We cannot remove 

 the withered flowers from them as we can from Rhododen- 

 drons or Azaleas; we must let the fruit develop; so heavy 

 crops on the same tree in successive years are rare, for much 

 of the materials which would go to the formation of new 

 flower-buds as well as of growth, is used up in the fruit. 

 This is a strong argument against excessive cropping. Too 

 much fruit one year means too little the next ; worse than that, 

 it permanently weakens (he trees. 



HOW A TUEE GROWS. 



Let us see how. A fruit tree grows by additions to the 

 outside of the wood — the ciimbium laver, fls it is cnlled — each 



