Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-04-18
OvERBEARING FRUIT TREES.

ODly small proportion OF frnlt-gfOWers
ever appear to realize that their average
profits are very seriously impaired by allow
ing their trees to overbear. This practice
is SO common that standard phrase, ''the
bearing year." has become familiar on many
fruit-farms, the idea being that it is the nat
ursl habits of most trees to bear in alter
nate years, or sometimes once in thre
years. This is pornicious idea, aud one
which has lost the country immense sums.
The natural habit of the tree is to bear fruit
each year as it is to bear leaves or bios
SONS, the latter rarely failing except when
the buds have been winter killed, or after
bearing crop so great as entirely incapaei-
tate it for an effort of this kind. After
blossomiDg it may fail of fruit for various
causes; sometimes because of late frosts or
heavy rains, or blasting winds, or because
it may have Just strength enough TO bios.
som aud not TO mature fruit. But it is its
nature to blossom and bear fruit every
year, and when it does not, and falls into
the habit of bearing only alternate years,
or even less regularly, the owner may
reasonably conclude that something is
wrong on bis part, that habitual neglect
has something to do with it, and that if he
would have fine fruit each year, he must
expect to give care and attention also each
year.
Now if such course gives ''too much
trouble" those fruit growers who think so
should cease complaints and be content
with such shabby results as they all the
while realize. Domestic animals must be
cared for two or three times day, and no.
body complains; but TO attend once or
twice year to the imperative wants OF a
fruit tee seems terrible burden to many.
1t does not need quite as much care as a
horse, but it does require some attention at
various times each year, and if not given,
the result is alternate barrenness and over
cropping, shabby fruit and trees which dis
grace the owner and his farm.
We had last year, in most parts of the
country, great apple crop, and very nat
urally poor market. Apples hardly paid
the expense of marketing. 1t was early
seen that this would be the case; yet how
many apple growers had the foresight to
thin out the fruit 50 that only frst-class
specimens should mature, and that their
trees might be in condition to bear good
crops this year, when, in all probability,
from the carelessness of the masses, apples
will be scarce from oyerbearing9 Not many
of course-"they hadn't time" The result
was great crop when there was almost no
profit in their production, and this year bar
rem trees, when apples will command hand
some prices. Careful thinning would have
given small crop of the best specimens
which, from their extra size, would have
commanded the best prices, and left the
trees in full vigor; but now the chances are
that they will be weak, will blossom sparse
Iv-, fLnft fall
turely if the spring is at all unfavorable.
The treatment recommended for apple
trees applies with still more force to other
fruits, many of which indeed depend for
their market value upon their excellence in
size and appearance. 1t is only in seasons
of remarkable scarcity that inferior peaches
and pears are worth much, while fine fruits
always sell well, and in seasons of scarcity
commands enormous prices. 1t should then
be permanent aim of the fruit-grower to
produce the very best each season. He
saves his trees from exhaustion by it, and
the labor of thinning out In fruitful sea-
| son is balanced in part by decrease In the
labor ofpackiDg great crop of inferior fruit
for market at low rates. Or if he should
get Just as many barrels or packages by reas
son of extra size, the labor of gathering and
packing will certainly be diminished be-
cause large specimens can be most rapidly
handled, and the pleasure Of handling will
also be much greater. He will not be as
dependent on hired help for that work.
| The exhaustion of the trees does not come
simply from producing a given weight of
| fruit, but instead of, from the large amount
of seeds to be matured in the case of a
large number Of specimens. Thus hun
dred apples or peaches, weighing together
fifty pounds, would weaken a tree far less
than four hundred specimens weighing the
same in the aggregate, because of the extra
quantity of seed. Yet who does not know
that the hundred specimens would bring
the most money by far, and the most eco
nomically prepared for transportation?
The difference between the good and the
poor farmer is largely seen in the foresight
shown in such matters as this. One looks
ahead and prepares for such emergencies as
gluts dy having only good fruit to sell; the
| other "lets nature take its course" and then
complains of hard times. The one saves
his trees from exhaustion when the crop is
not likely to be worth much, and has them
in condition for heavy crops, if ever, in seas
ons of scarcity. The one diminishes his
autumn labor by increasing it in the early
summer; the other reserves it all for seas
on when the cost is greater and the profit
less. One has more or less of paying crops
every year; the other never has them, I'M
less by accident. And the reason is that
one thinks, studies, reads and avails him.
self Of the best experience of others; the
other has "no time TO waste an newlangled
notions!"-C0Ultry Gentleman.