Newton’s revenge

The dry spring and the summer heat of 2018 ensured a lush apple harvest in autumn 2018. On almost all orchard meadows in Germany there were signs of abundance. Many trees could not be harvested, the apples and pears fell from the trees and remained on the meadows.
During autumn, I photographed again and again at different places in southern Germany the trees which were full of not harvested fruits and the pattern of fallen apples and pears.

Was it only the biennial bearing, the irregular crop load from year to year or another sign of an affluent society and waste, because it simply was not worth to bring the apples to the fruit press house or even to collect and pick them up?