WINTER PRUNING EXPERIMENTS WITH APPLE TREES. 157 
The only exceptions to the rule are ' Bismarck ' and ' Gladstone * 
om ' Crab ' ; the numbers in the case of the former are so small, owing 
to the cutting away of nearly all the " axillary " blossom buds in 
pruning, that the result is probably accidental ; in the latter case the 
result is more than reversed by the trees on ' Paradise/ It may be 
taken, then, that in our conditions short-spur pruning always tends 
to reduce the amount of blossom, at least up to the eighth year, and 
often to a very large extent. 
But in spite of this effect, there are four cases (other than 
' Bismarck ' and ' Gladstone ' on ' Crab ') where the short-spur pruned 
trees have in three years borne a slightly larger total number of 
fruits ; these are ' James Grieve ' on ' Crab/ ' Worcester Pearmain ' 
on both ' Crab ' and ' Paradise/ and ' Lane's Prince Albert/ It is 
clear that the short-spur pruned trees have in these cases set a larger 
proportion of their blossom. Percentages calculated as in Table II. 
show that this is the case, especially in 1921 ; actually we find that 
the same is true of ' James Grieve ' on ' Paradise ' and of ' Lord 
Derby/ and to a very slight extent of one or two other varieties. 
The fact that both ' James Grieve ' and ' Worcester Pearmain ' show 
this result on both ' Crab ' and ' Paradise ' suggests that it is not 
merely accidental ; more probably it is in some way connected with 
the idiosyncrasy of the varieties, for ' Allington/ * Gladstone/ 
' Newton Wonder/ and ' Norfolk Beauty ' show the reverse effect 
to quite as great an extent. 
Whether the " short-spur pruning " increases or reduces wood 
growth as compared with ' ' long-spur pruning ' ' is uncertain . The weight 
of prunings might be taken as an indication (allowance being made for 
the larger proportion of each lateral cut away from the short-spur 
pruned trees) ; and since in a majority of cases the weight of prunings 
has for two years been less from the short-spur pruned trees, it seems 
likely that there is frequently some reduction of wood growth. But 
since in every case of a variety on both ' Crab ' and ' Paradise ' the 
results from the two lots of trees contradict each other, little attention 
can be paid to the results as a whole. The most extreme difference 
occurs in the case of ' Allington/ where the weight of prunings from 
the short-spur pruned trees has been nearly 40 per cent, greater than 
that from the long-spur pruned trees. Since ' Allington/ when tipped, 
forms many lateral shoots from adventitious buds on the older wood, 
it seems possible that the closer spurring has actually increased the 
wood growth and the number of laterals of the trees ; but the result 
might equally well be ascribed to the lighter cropping of the short-spur 
pruned trees. 
One other result of short-spur pruning deserves mention. With 
some varieties a large proportion of the iaterals, when cut to one 
prominent bud, as in short-spur pruning, fails to produce even a " short 
dard" and dies right out, often leaving considerable lengths of wood with- 
out any spurs. ' Cox's Orange ' and ' Lane's ' are the worst varieties in 
this respect, while ' Worcester ' and ' Grieve ' are less seriously affected. 
