Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
The Rural New-Yorker 
The Business Farmer’s Paper 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies, Five Cents 
Vol. LXX1Y 
NEW YORK, APRIL 24, 15)15. 
No. 420:’.. 
KEEPING A TREE RECORD. 
A “ Fat” 'Pest for Orchards. 
XDIYIDUAL PRODUCTION.—I notice in my 
copy of The R. N.-Y.. doted March 20, an adver¬ 
tisement in which automobile users are strongly 
urged to keep a tire record. When I glanced at this 
sentence I misread it and thought it said “Keep a 
tree record.” It certainly appeals to me that there 
is as much, if not more, necessity for horticulturists 
to keep a tree record as it is desirable for automo- 
ble owners to keep a tire record. This has suggest¬ 
ed to me the fact that it is now the tim<' for orehard- 
ists to consider tin* question of keeping individual 
tree records the coming season. In California, we 
:ire glad to report, there has been a great increase 
in the number of fruit growers who have numbered 
their trees and are keeping a record of the individ¬ 
ual tree's production. I think 1 can safely say 
that a majority of the fruit growers in this State 
ore now keeping such a systematic record. Also, 
the growers who have adopted a system of tree 
records have found that these records are of intense 
interest and value to them. Some of our agricul¬ 
tural high schools have adopted tree performance 
record work as a part of their curriculum and the 
hoys and girls are find¬ 
ing the work of keeping 
tree records as interest¬ 
ing as has been tin* case 
in the work of seed corn 
testing and judging and 
similar work with other 
crops. 
IMPORTANCE OF 
THE WORK.—I wish 
there were some way in 
which I could reach 
every fruit grower in 
the East and present to 
them tin 1 importance of 
individual rree records. 
If one fruit grower in 
each community would 
adopt a tree record sys¬ 
tem, 1 feel sure that in 
a comparatively short 
time a majority of the 
interested g ro w ers 
would adopt this emin¬ 
ently practicable and 
profitable phase of or¬ 
chard work. We are in 
correspondence w i t h 
growers of apples, 
peaches, pears and cher¬ 
ries. and of small fruits, 
such as currants and 
strawberries, who have 
either begun or are 
planning to begin this 
year the individual plant record. Similar methods, 
of course, have been carried out and are be¬ 
ing carried out by potato growers in keeping 
an individual bill record, and the results of such 
work are so encouraging and are of so much im¬ 
portance to the potato industry that more and more 
potato growers are adopting this method of work 
as a means for securing improved seed potatoes. 
METHODS INVOLVED.—The individual tree rec¬ 
ord seems at first thought, perhaps, to be more com¬ 
plicated and difficult than is found to be the case 
upon actual trial. To be sure it means the intro¬ 
duction of systematic methods which we have found 
to be advantageous in many respects aside from se¬ 
curing reliable information as to tree behavior. I 
wish that some of the younger generation—the boys, 
sons of orchardists—would take an interest and be¬ 
gin to secure some tree records. It might not be 
practicable in all cases to secure a record of all 
the trees, in which case a plot of say a hundred 
trees can be selected for this purpose. At the risk 
of repetition, I am going to outline briefly a few 
suggestions as to keeping tree records in the hope 
that it may interest additional fruit growers in this 
matter. 
TREE NUMBERS.—In the first place, every tree 
must be given a number. The most practical sys¬ 
tem which we have tried out for this purpose is to 
arrange this tree number so us not only to identify 
the tree, but so as to locate its position in the or¬ 
chard. In order to do this, each tree should be given 
a number, consisting of the number of the plot in 
which tin' tree is located, the number of the row, 
and the number of the tree in the row. A tree lo¬ 
cated in plot 2. row 3, and the 12th tree in row 2, 
would have the number 2-3-12. This number should 
lie attached in a permanent way to the tree. We 
have found that painting this number on the tree 
trunks or one of the main limbs of the tree is 
a satisfactory method. Pure white lead is used. A 
small camel's-hair brush is. desirable for making 
the numbers. We place these numbers always on 
the same relative sides of the tree, as. for instance, 
mi the south side, so ns to assist in finding them. 
In some cases it is desirable to brush off the tree’s 
trunk or the place where the number is to be paint¬ 
ed, in order to remove any dirt, or other obstructions 
to numbering. Plain, large figures should be used 
and with a little experience we have found that 
from 250 to 300 trees can lie numbered in a day’s 
work. The position of the numbers on the tree can 
be arranged in any way that is most satisfactory, 
but we have found that it is usually desirable to 
arrange the numbers in a vertical column. With 
this method of numbering, no matter how many 
plots or how many rows or how many trees there 
are in the orchard, there can be no duplication of 
numbers. It also avoids cumbersome numbers. It 
enables the orehnrdist to find any particular tree at 
any time with absolute certainty and without diffi¬ 
culty. Many advantages will be found in the use 
of this system by orchards, aside from this use in 
keeping tree performance records. 
TREE RECORD BLANKS.—For practicable per¬ 
formance records, we suggest that a record of the 
number of barrels or boxes or baskets of fruit from 
each tree be kept.. For more careful and detailed 
work of this character, a record of the pounds and 
the number of fruits borne by each tree is desirable. 
To anyone who is interested to the extent of going 
into tree performance record work in detail, we will 
be glad to cooperate by correspondence and suggest 
methods of carrying on this work and blanks for 
keeping the individual tree records based on our 
experience along this line But for ordinary, prac¬ 
tical purposes, a record of the amount of produc¬ 
tion as expressed in the usual picking receptacle, 
such as a basket or box, or other receptacle, has 
proven to be satisfactory. The following form for 
keeping these records is suggested for the orchard- 
ist's use. An ordinary notebook can be adopted for 
this purpose and ruled according to the suggested 
outline for a tree record blank on next page. 
With this record form, the only figure that needs 
to be filled in on each sheet is the plot number and 
the row number. The number of the trees on each 
sheet will depend upon the size most convenient. 
Usually spaces are provided for records for about 
400 trees on each sheet. The number of spaces pro¬ 
vided for recording the yield of each pick will de¬ 
pend upon tin* number of picks which are to be 
made. In the case of peaches, of course, a large 
number of columns must be provided, depending on 
the number of picks, in some of our peach per¬ 
formance records we have made as many as sixteen 
picks during a season from each tree of certain 
varieties. In the case of apples we have made usu 
ally only two. and, at the most, three picks The 
arrangement of the sheet, providing for different 
picks, can lie adapted to the particular variety and 
the usual number of picks made from the trees of 
this variety by tin' grower. Each tree must be 
picked separately, so that a record may be made of 
the amount from each particular tree. A prac¬ 
tical means for doing this without interfering with 
the work of picking must la' worked out by 
each grower. A number 
of different systems are 
I) e i n g used success¬ 
fully. The method best 
adapted to the individ¬ 
ual grower’s needs will 
depend upon many con¬ 
ditions, so that no gen¬ 
eral method can be re¬ 
commended to meet all 
conditions. I sually one 
person following a gang 
of pickers can keep this 
record accurately and 
efficiently. The foreman 
of the picking crew usu¬ 
ally a-tends to this work. 
Sometimes a picker or 
other person is desig¬ 
nated to look after the 
filling in of the tree rec¬ 
ord data. No matter 
what system is adopted, 
the main idea is to se¬ 
cure reliable and accur¬ 
ate information as to 
the individual tree’s 
production. This rec¬ 
ord. to be of value, 
must cover, of course, a 
period of several years. 
We have found that a 
two years’ record is of 
considerable i n t e rest 
and value and that a 
years’ record of trees that are in full bear¬ 
ing gives an accurate line upon the individual tree 
behavior. 
OBJECTS OF TREE RECORDS.—The purpose 
of these records is to develop a definite knowledge 
of the orchard, which is of the utmost importance 
and value to the owner. The number of poor and 
drone trees is accurately determined by this method: 
the number of regular bearing and productive trees, 
if any, and their location, is discovered by the use 
of these tree records; the proportion of profitable 
;dul unprofitable trees in the orchard is disclosed 
as a result of such records; sources of budwood for 
topworking or for propagation are developed so that 
growers can go to a particular tree and cut bud 
wood from reliable sources; a definite knowledge of 
the behavior of the varieties is obtained as a result 
of this work; the existence of different types as a 
result of bud variations can be discovered from 
this work; the undesirable types can be located and 
eliminated by topworking, rebudding or replanting. 
It is exactly the same principle which is applied 
in tin 1 dairy industry where individual cow records 
are kept by dairymen in order to gain definite 
knowledge of the individual cow’s behavior: it is 
the same principle which underlies the ear to row 
method of the improvement of our established va- 
A Peach Among Peaches ! 
Not long ago The R. N.-Y. printed a picture showing a boy riding on a turkey’s back. We supposed, of course, that all would rec¬ 
ognize it as a trick or joke of the photographer's art. To our surprise one reader accused us of trying to “fake” the public, so let 
us be careful to explain this time that the above picture merely shows what a photographer can do by neatly pasting the figure of 
the little girl on a photograph of peaches and then photographing the whole thing. 
foil r 
