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not as a rule produce fruit; in warm, 
damp climates trees and vines grow to 
great size and with much foliage but bear 
little or no fruit: pruning, which is fav- 
orable to wood growth, is antagonistic to 
fruit production. Plants that are pro- 
ducing too much wood and foliage and 
too little fruit may be subjected to sev- 
eral treatments to induce them to bear 
fruit. 
Water Supply 
Regulation of the water supply some- 
times induces the formation of fruit buds. 
In the irrigated regions of the West, 
vegetative growth may be stopped by 
withholding water and the setting of fruit 
buds thus be materially influenced. It 
is a matter of common observation every- 
where that a dry season is more con- 
ducive to the formation of fruit buds 
for the ensuing season’s crop than a wet 
one. The water supply in unirrigated 
regions may be regulated only through 
drainage, but fortunately drainage may 
often be made an important means of in- 
ducing early fruitfulness and a fruit-bear- 
ing habit. Other things being equal, trees 
on wet, sodden soils do not bear fruit 
early in life and do not set fruit regu- 
larly and in proper quantities. Under 
such conditions there is insufficient food 
for either wood or fruit production. The 
remedy is obvious and the subject needs 
no further discussion. 
Light 
Much can be done in securing the proper 
formation of fruit buds by giving the 
trees an abundance of light. The outside 
row in an orchard, where the trees have 
most light, usually bears the most fruit. 
It is true that these isolated trees have 
more food and moisture as well as more 
light and because of these two factors, 
also, many buds set. Yet light must be 
counted as important and is to be secured 
by proper spacing and by developing 
open-headed, well pruned trees. 
Food Supply 
The food supply has much to do with 
the formation of fruit buds and probably 
the most rational procedure under average 
orchard conditions to induce fruit bearing 
is to regulate the supply of food. With 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
the widely varying conditions of differ- 
ent orchards, this is not easily done. It 
does not appear from any information 
that we now have that there is a storage 
of particular food for fruit buds and of 
other food for wood growth, but rather 
that stored food is quite as available for 
one sort of growth as for the other, yet 
it is generally supposed that the kind of 
food given plants influences the amount 
stored and consequently, the number of 
fruit buds formed or the amount of 
growth made. 
Briefly, the behavior of foods upon 
manner of plant growth is supposed to 
be this: An abundance of food, especial- 
ly if it contains nitrogen, and if at the 
same time there be a plentiful supply of 
water, is most favorable to the formation 
and growth of cells, hence of wood and 
leaf growth. If the amount of food be 
decreased, and more particularly if the 
nitrogen as compared with the potash and 
phosphate be decreased, and especially if 
there be an increase of light and air, 
wood growth is lessened and the number 
of fruit buds is materially increased. 
Sometimes the excess of food and 
moisture is already in the soil and the 
problem then is to reduce the quantities 
and so bring on fruit-bud formation. The 
orthodox method of reducing the quanti- 
ty of plant food and soil moisture is to 
sow a grain crop in the orchard. The 
trees under such treatment cease to make 
wood growth and use the assimilated 
substances in the making of fruit buds. 
This procedure, it should be said at once, 
is seldom necessary. 
The fact that leaf and wood growth 
and fruit bearing in plants are opposed 
to each other is well recognized by fruit 
growers; but the knowledge is quite too 
often wrongly used, exemplifying again 
that “a little learning is a dangerous 
thing.” Thus, to bring trees into bearing 
is often the owner’s excuse for double- 
cropping orchards, putting an orchard 
down to sod and withholding proper cul- 
tivation. 
Pruning 
Pruning often materially aids in caus- 
ing the storing of plant food for the 
