BUDS 



59 



be more regular annual bearers of fruit than do those 

 varieties which produce fruit buds only on older growth. 

 Annual bearing, it must be stated, however, is a habit 

 which is dependent not upon this one factor alone, but 

 upon other factors. For instance, certain spurs may bear 

 fruit one 3 ear, while others are fruitless. The following 

 season the fruitless spurs may 

 bear the crop, while the pre- 

 viously fruitful ones may -[ake 

 a rest, h'ruit spurs M/VY pr(j- 

 duce fruit each alternate year, 

 but this is not nearly as regular 

 a habit as it is popularly be- 

 lieved to be. 



62. Pit fruit bud positions. — 

 While the outline (5(i) shows 

 the general ways in which pit 

 fruit buds are borne, yet the 

 /ariations due to variety, en- 

 vironment and other causes de- 

 serve a special paragraph. 



Stone fruit blossom buds are 

 unlike those of apple and pear 

 in being simple ; that is, they 

 are not clustered with leaves, 

 though plum and cherry buds 

 often contain a few little leaves 

 that usually drop off before the 

 fruit ripens. Sometimes peach 

 and apricot buds contain two 

 flowers, though one is the nor- 

 mal number. Cherry buds 

 usually reveal two flower buds, though the number may 

 vary from one to five. The same is true of plums, except 

 that two or three are the usual numbers. 



The peach bears its blossom buds singly beside ? 

 branch bud or in pairs with a branch bud between, except 



FIG. 3S— ANNUAL GROWTH OF 

 PEACH 

 The three pieces constitute ofie 

 branch of "last" season's growth. 

 Note, 1, positions of the bloom- 

 near the middle of the branch; 2, 

 that normally a branch bud lies 

 between two bloom buds and also 

 at the terminal; 3, that bloom ex- 

 tends nearly to the tip with only 

 short, bare interxals above and 

 below the main blooming area, and 

 these intervals bear branch or leaf 

 buds; 4, that the lowest branch 

 buds are not swelling while the 

 upper ones are. 



