The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-06-22
(By J. G. WHITTEN.)

By J. c. WHITTEN.)
There is perhaps no phase of farm
fng in which careful methods pay bet
ter than they do in fsuit growing.
There is probably nothing else grown
on the farm that suffers more if neg
lected than does the orchard. Most
Of our essential farm crops are an
nuals.
The plants which produce them
grow but a single season. If the farm
er neglects them, or if the season is
bad, or if mistakes are made, the mis-
fortune which results lasts but single
season.
The farmer may plant another crop
next year and start afresh with new
plants. The orchard trees are peren-
malls; once planted they should last
for years. Any misfortune which over
lakes them in given season may
show its bad effect for years, or even
through the life history of the trees.
Mistakes made 10 the management
Of fruit trees may not easily be recti-
iAd next year.
Again, annual farm crops live during
the favorable growing season of the
year. They are out of the way before
winter comes.
Fruit trees must not only grow in
summer, but must live over winter and
endure, the inclement season. They
should be kept in the best condition in
order successfully to do this.
The grower should keep the fact in
mind that fruit tree is at all seasons
a living, sensitive, plastic, shapable
thing. 1t is affected by everything
that is done to it.
1t will show the results of any phase
of treatment, whether of culture or
pruning or of spraying. Whatever is
done to it will make it different from
what it would have been if left alone.
things to it which will make it better,
rather than be injurious.
The man who begins seriously to
study his trees will soon begin to
realize more fully that they are living,
shapable things and that they easily
show him by their appearance whether
they are profting or being injured by
anything which is being done to them.
Right now is good time to begin
that study. One should be able to tell
the age Of the tree, or of any Of it's
branches. He should determine how
much of it has been produced each
year.
By beginning at the outer tip of the
limb he can determine how much Of it
grew last summer, or in any previous
season, by the rings or circular scars
around the twig which mark the spot
where growth began in the spring.
Reflect that growth began in spring
from a terminal bud. AS growth be-
gan from the center of this bud it's
winter scales fell off, leaving semi
circular scale bud scars quite close to-
gether, around the twig.
These are the rings" that mark the
dividing line between each years
growth. The amount of length growth
of each year may be associated with
what was done to the tree or by the
character of the season which intiu-
enced that growth.
A knowledge of the fruit buds and
the wood buds is important. The for
mer are those large, well-rounded buds
which in spring will produce bios
SONS and fruit. The latter are the
smaller, fiatter and more pointed buds,
which produce wood growth and
leaves. Fruit-buds which will produce
flowers and fruit this spring were
formed the previous summer
By their character and abundance
ne may in winter judge the prospect
If the fruit crop the coming season.
-rL / the blossom scars and fruit
sc-rs left on the branches one may be
able to tell in what years the trees
ave borne fruit in the past.
Il the trees have blossomed and
ruit failed to set only the small bios
bom scar will be visible as cluster