148 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
spring. The two largest trees of this variety, one " unpruned " and 
one " open centre," have for the past three years taken it in turns to 
bear an immense crop of fruit, the former in 1919 and 1921, and the 
latter in 1920. In its " off " year each has produced at most two or 
three blossom buds and as many fruits. 
The unpruned trees of ' Allington Pippin ' behaved in 1921 in the 
same way, and to almost as great an extent ; but here the result, as 
shown by number of fruits, is obscured by the much higher percentage 
of the blossom which set in 1921 than in 1920 (see Table II.). ' Newton 
Wonder ' and ' Grenadier/ where unpruned, provide further examples 
of the habit. More than half the unpruned trees of ' Newton Wonder ' 
(five out of eight), after carrying a heavy crop of fruit in 1920, pro- 
duced only a few blossoms in 192 1 ; the average weight of their crop 
(all the eight trees) was just four times as great in 1920 as in 1921. 
The long-spur pruned trees of ' Newton Wonder,' on the other 
hand, which in 1920 had many less fruits and a slightly smaller total 
weight than the unpruned trees, actually produced an increased 
number and weight of fruit in 1921, although their average number 
of blossom buds (Table I.) was a trifle less. But it is interesting to 
find that those three long-spur pruned trees which had the most 
blossom in 1920 produced comparatively few blossom buds in 1921. 
The point is worth presenting in detail : Table IV. shows the individual 
records of the eight long-spur pruned trees of ' Newton Wonder ' for 
1920 and 1921. 
Table IV. — Individual Tree Records, 'Newton Wonder/ 
Long-spur Pruned. 
Tree. 
Number of Blossom 
Buds. 
Number of Fruits. 
Weight of Fruit. 
Per cent, of Blossom 
set (as in Table II.). 
1920. 
1921. 
1920. 
1921. 
1920. 
1921. 
1920. 
1921. 
' I 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
62 
90 
266 
168 
124 
218 
44 
145 
66 
99 
30 
44 
201 
44 
319 
307 
I 
82 
139 
46 
90 
77 
28 
14 
28 
61 
9 
28 
125 
13 
173 
115 
lb . oz . 
5 
29 12 
26 IO 
13 9 
28 1 
20 4 
10 3 
4 15 
lb. oz. 
9 5 
19 10 
2 7 
8 4 
29 11 
4 9 
46 7 
27 14 
i-6 
91- 1 
52-3 
- 27-4 
72*6 
35'3 
63-6 
9'6 
42-4 
6i-6 
30-0 
63-6 
62*2 
29*5 
54*2 
37'4 
The three trees referred to above are numbers 3, 4, and 6 ; it will 
be seen that these were the highest in number of blossom buds in 1920 
and lowest in 192 1. The question arises whether a large number of 
blossoms or a large number of fruits has the more influence in preventing 
a tree from forming blossom buds for the following year's crop. A 
comparison of tree 1 with tree 7, and tree 2 with tree 6, seems to show 
that in these cases the number of blossom buds was the more important 
factor ; but that the number of fruits also influences the result is 
shown by a comparison of tree 4 with tree 8. 
