10 
BULLETIN 623, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
the orchard or its abbreviation. This system can be adapted to 
the conditions in any orchard and to any method of orchard manage- 
ment. For instance, in one of the orchards where investigational 
performance-record plats are located it was found desirable by the 
owner to subdivide certain plats rather than to give each such sub- 
division a separate plat number. This explains the use of the num- 
bers 7: 1, 7: 2, etc., as plat designations in tree numbers in some of 
the following tables. 
In the case of bearing trees, this number can be painted on the 
tree trunk or on one of the main limbs, arranging the number in a 
vertical column in the 
form shown in figure 1. 
A common lettering 
brush and pure white- 
lead paint are best 
adapted for this purpose. 
Very young trees on 
which space is not avail- 
able for painting the 
number may be num- 
bered by stamping or 
painting the number on a 
metal or other tag and 
attaching it to the tree. 
The tree numbers are 
always placed in the same 
relative position on all of 
the trees in the orchard, 
for convenience in find- 
ing them. Large, dis- 
tinct figures are made, 
so that they are easily 
legible. 
^»M^ 
Fig. 1. 
-Arrangement of the individual tree number on the trunk 
of a tree. 
TREE MARKERS. 
Each individual tree in the performance-record plats is marked 
several weeks before picking with streamers of white cotton cloth 
(see figs. 3,4, and 6), in order that the regular orchard crew will under- 
stand that they are not to be picked. Several streamers, about 
1 inch wide and 3 feet long, 're tied to projecting limbs on all sides 
of the trees as high as can be reached conveniently. These markers 
are renewed every season. 
PICKING. 
The picking of the performance-record trees is done by trained 
men, and, so far as possible, the same men are used year after year 
