THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
Prize Hsgay 
Burnley School of Horticulture 
BY E. M. ROLLAND. 
Subject: “‘The Most Common Causes of 
Irregular Bearing and Imperfect De- 
velopment of Tree Fruits and their 
_ Remedies.” ; 
In the world of to-day a progressive evolu- 
tion is taking place, where only the most capable 
-are allowed to stand, the slow and uninitiated 
are, left behind. As with other things, the 
science of fruit-growing is rapidly forging ahead, 
and only the best and most payable methods 
-arein use, The time has been when many, 
failing utterly to comprehend that any know- 
ledge was required, attempted to grow fruit 
without understanding anything about fruit 
trees, or about soil, or climate, or disease. The 
result was utter failure, and go the idea spread 
that fruit growing was not a paying concern. 
Fortunately there were others, who had know- 
ledge, and so were able to get good returns from 
their orchards. But to-day knowledge is more 
prevalent, Hruit-growing has becomea science 
worthy of being thoroughly studied, and people 
have begun to realize that it is no use ‘trying to 
grow fruit without an adequate snowledge. 
Following on added knowledge came added 
economy, and so trees that do not give back a 
proper return for their size and age, nus: either 
be thrown out or treated so that this defect may 
be remedied as far as possible. ‘This brings us 
to the subject «f this essay, “The most Common 
Cause of Irregular Bearing, etc.” 
Healthy Trees Fruit Regularly. 
When a tree reaches the fruiting stage it 
ought to bear, and go on bearing systematically, 
till the weakness of old age is reached, when its 
paying life is done. But if the tree instead 
bears sometimes heavy crops, and sometimes 
none at all, or if it only fruits well on one side 
and grows very inferior fruit on the other, this 
is just the kind of tree that we cannot afford to 
give room to in a well-planned orchard. Some 
time azo the only thing to be done was to pull 
it up and throw it on the rubbish ,hea , and 
plant a new one, for often the cause of this 
irregular fruiting was unknown. But now the 
most common causes are known, and it only re- 
mains to apply the right remedies, We can 
now list the most important of these causes, 
and point out the remedies for each case, 
—_— 
Systematic Pruning a Necessity. 
The most common cause of all is want of 
pruning, or want of sufficient and correct prun- 
ing. It is not at all uncommon to meet people 
who tell you that their fruit tree bears very 
heavy crops; and they ‘boast perhaps that they 
% 
AY $85 bebe ecen  = 
took so many cases of fruit from it that year. 
When you ask tiem about the next year, they 
tell you that they do not expect much fruit 
then, but the year after that again there will be 
another good crop. That may do for the ama- 
teur, but it will not do for the professional 
fruit-grower, who must have a regular supply of 
fruit each year. The effect on the tree will be 
huriful It will tend to curtail the life of the 
tree, and cause such exhaustion that it has to 
“lie fallow” for a season, because it has not the 
strength t» put forth new healthy wood to bear 
flowers and fruit for the following year. ‘These 
heavy crops, too, are very apt to break the 
branches and throw the tree out of form, 
Proper pruning will prevent this by allowing 
the tree to bear just sufficient for its strength, 
so that when next year comes the tree will not 
have become so exhausted as to be unable to 
bear at all, or, at the most, only inferior fruit, 
The whole object of pruning is to ensure more 
regular crops over a lunger period, besides ob- 
taining an increase in size of the fruit, combined 
with a better appearance and quality. 
Types of Bearing Wood. 
Each kiud of fruit tree has its own type of 
bearmg wood: thus the apple and pear on 
fruiting shoots and spurs, the cherry chiefly on 
spurs, ‘he apricot and plum on shoots and arti- 
ficial spurs, and the peach on one-year-old 
shoots and spurs. If the different types of 
bearing wood are not known, the pruner may 
cut away the very pieces of wood inost suitable 
to fruiting, and no crop, or very little, will be 
the resuit. Especially may mistakes in prun- 
iug be made in trees that have peculiar habits 
of bearing. In the Jonathan apple the flower 
bud is borne at the end of the shoot or spur : 
the Irish peach, too, puts out long shoots on 
which the flower buds will be at the end, It 
will thus be easily seen that if the pruner cuts 
away half the shoot or spur, as would be cor- 
rectin most trees to strengthen it, he will also 
cut away the fruit. If these shouts are left long 
the first year, and then bear fruit, the weight 
of it will bend the shoot and cause spurs to 
form naturally where the constriction of sap is. 
These spurs will then bear the fruit for next 
season, and the shoots can then be shortened. 
Williams’ Bon Chrétien pear has the same 
manner of bearing, and so is treated in the 
same way. The Winter Nelis pear has always 
been considered hard to get to fruit, because its 
habit of bearing was unknown. Only one 
kindgof wood bears fruit in this case, and that 
is a small spur. 
Other fruit trees are what is called « shy- 
bearing.” By that is meant that the tree takes 
a longer time to mature its wood and bear fruit 
than other trees. It may bear a little fruit 
now and then, but will not bear full crops 
regularly. The Nickajack apple is one of these 
shy-bearing trees. A seedling fruit tree that 
has not been “ worked,” that is, neither grafted 
nor budded, is also irregular in coming into 
bearing. Itis irregular, too, in the kind of 
fruit it bears, the latter noi always coming true. 
Ten years will, in some cases, clapse before 
any fruit is borne, because the tree is too strong, 
The seedling is the strongest tree. Working” 
is always a weakening factor, the sap not having 
80 straight a ‘flow. 
Varying Degrees of Vigour affect Fruit 
Bearing. 
Want of design or balance in the tree at the 
start is a frequent fault, and one that must 
place the tree at a disadvantage. Where one 
side becomes the strongest, it will continue to 
be the strongest at the expense of the weaker 
side, unless some means are adopted to restore 
Mazcu 15, 1906 
the balance. In a young tree with its three 
main branches starting from the three upper- 
most buds, the top branch will always be found 
to be the strongest, second the next strongest, 
and the lowest the weakest, because sap flows 
first and strongest to the highest point. This 
may be checked by leaving the weakest branch 
the longest, and the strongest the shortest. If 
this balancing has been neglected or has not 
been sufficient, it may be done still later when 
the leaves are out. If the strongest be just 
topped, it will give the weakest time to make up 
to it. 
Trees can often be seen with two or three 
strong branches on one side, and four or five 
Weak ones to balance the other side. The weak 
tree will bear most on the shady side, for that 
will be the stronger side, while the strong tree 
will bear its fruit on the sunny and exposed 
side, that having the weaker and the riper 
wood. j 
The fruiting wood should be evenly distri- 
buted throughout the whole tree, for equal 
size and vigor mean equal growth and fruiting. 
* well-designed tree will have a healthier life, 
will fruit wore regularly, and live longer than 
ore lacking balance, When a tree is getting old 
its fruit will naturally become poorer, but if it 
be cut back and reduced in size it will have less 
to dv, and the fruit will be better and more 
sure. 
(To be continued.) 
E. and W. Hackett 
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