20 BULLETIN 1104, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Direct evidence on this question is furnished by the very decisive } 
results of thinning the fruit and girdling branches during the 
summer of 1919. The trees were bearing a heavy crop, and brown- 
ing was almost negligible in normal fruit during the following 
winter storage season. Very considerable browning, however, ap- 
peared in the large well-nourished fruit from the girdled branches, 
whereas even less than the average appeared in fruit from branches 
from which half the leaves had been stripped. 
With these facts in mind, before picking in 1920 and again at the 
time of picking, careful notes were made concerning the density and 
condition of the foliage on the trees, the size of the crop, and the 
size of the fruit. The crop in the orchard was hght during the 
1920-21 season, so the fruits as a rule were of very large size. _ Indi- 
vidual yields varied from practically no fruit to 6 or 8 boxes per 
tree. Since most of the trees under observation were very large, 
even a crop of 8 boxes was not more than an average yield for a 
normal year. | 
The foliage on the different trees varied widely in density and 
appearance. The size of the fruit varied with the size of the crop 
and the density and condition of the foliage. When the crop was 
- small and the foliage was in good condition, the fruit was usually of 
large size. 
Upon comparing these records with the percentages of browning 
that developed during the storage season, it was found that trees 
with the combination of good, rich foliage and a small crop of large- 
sized fruit have practically always produced fruit that tended to 
brown very badly. On the other hand, fruit from trees with a large 
crop of medium-sized apples has almost invariably developed very 
little browning. ‘Trees possessing very poor foliage and also bear- 
ing a very light crop were often difficult to place so far as brown- 
ing was concerned. Fruit from such trees usually developed moder- 
ate browning. 
This relationship of the total crop on the tree to the occurrence 
of browning may be shown by a study of the trees in the nitrogen 
plat. Records on the fruit from trees of this plat, together with 
notes made at the time of picking in 1920, are presented in Table 7. 
It is impossible to predict accurately from such data as the notes 
on tree conditions presented in Table 7 how much internal brown- 
ing will develop during the storage season. It is of interest, how- 
ever, that all the trees in the nitrogen plat which produced a high 
percentage of sound fruit are those producing a fairly large crop 
of medium-sized fruit. Nos. 133, 134, 137, and 138 were all well 
loaded for trees of their size. Trees Nos. 46, 1382, and 136, fruit 
from which became particularly badly browned, had very light 
crops of large-sized fruit and excellent foliage. 
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