154 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
no spurring at all had been done ; the centre was kept to some extent 
open by cutting clean out all strong shoots growing inwards. The 
modified method involves a considerably more severe pruning ; the 
effort now is to leave the main branches at approximately the same 
distance apart as those of the tipped trees, and to long-spur prune all 
superfluous shoots, so that the sole difference between the open centre 
and the long-spur pruned trees shall be the tipping of the latter. 
Allowance has to be made, of course, for the fact that the branches 
of the open centre trees are much more pulled down by the weight of 
fruit than those of the long-spur pruned trees ; this fact makes the 
method difficult of application to such varieties as 'Allington,' ' Lane's,' 
' Cox's Orange,' and to a less extent ' Early Victoria ' and ' Grenadier.' 
The effects of the open centre pruning may be grouped in the same 
way as those already described. No counts of the blossom buds of the 
open centre trees have yet been made, and we have thus no means 
.of finding the percentage of blossom setting. But the percentage of 
fruits found at picking in clusters of two or more gives us, as before, 
an indication of it. These figures are shown in Table VL 
Table VL— Percentage of Fruits found at Picking (1921) in 
Clusters of Two or More. 
Unpruned. 
Open Centre. 
Allington 
48 
49 
Bismarck 
36 
46 
Cox's Orange 
38 
44 
Newton Wonder 
31 
42 
Rival .... 
29 
Average . 
34 
42 
The higher percentage on the open centre trees, though slighter on 
the average than that of the long-spur pruned trees, occurs in every 
case, and is too considerable to be disregarded. It seems very probable 
that the setting of the blossom is more complete on the open centre 
trees. 
The same conclusion follows from casual observation. It has 
seemed fairly obvious at sight that the open centre trees of most, if 
not all, varieties have produced considerably less blossom on the average 
than the unpruned trees ; yet in ten cases out of nineteen, they have on 
a three years' average produced a larger total number of fruits. It is 
worth while to note which varieties show this heavier cropping of the 
open centre trees to the greatest extent. ' James Grieve,' ' Allington,' 
' Lane's Prince Albert,' and ' Beauty of Bath ' show the largest gains, 
while ' Gladstone,' ' Rival,' ' Early Victoria ' and ' Grenadier' show 
(in number of fruits, not all in weight) the reverse tendency. The case 
of ' Early Victoria ' is rather curious, the difference in favour of the 
unpruned trees being an indirect effect of biennial bearing ; in 1919 
and 1921 the unpruned trees had most fruits, while in 1920 the open 
