34 



AC.R I CULTURE OF M.XINI-: 



From an acre of 40 trees the gain from thinning as indicated 

 by this experiment at prices realized this year, would be as 



follows : 



Yield and Value of Fruit Per Acre. 



This shows a total gain of $71.28. The cost of grading and 

 thinning in the thinned tree was 11 1-3 cents per barrel. The 

 cost of grading in the unthinned tree was 10 cents. The thinned 

 fruit cost much less to grade, and, as is shown, the thinning in 

 this experiment cost only i 1-3 cents per barrel after extra cost 

 of grading the unthinned is deducted. This made a total cost for 

 thinning of $2.62 per acre, giving a net return of $68.66 per 

 acre in favor of thinning. 1 



THINNING EXPERIMENTS BRIDGETOWN 1913. 



Experiments in thinning were conducted at Bridgetown in the 

 orchard of F. H. Johnson. The variety Blenheim was used. 

 Five trees were thinned and these were compared with seven 

 trees unthinned. The trees were uniform and appeared to be 

 equally well set with fruit. Approximately 17 per cent of the 

 apples were removed from the thinned trees on the 15th of July. 



The apples were counted when picked and were packed by 

 the Banner Fruit Co. Ltd., Bridgetown. The apples were ship- 

 ped to England through the United Fruit Companies of Nova 

 Scotia Ltd. In addition to the usual marking, the letters A. B. F. 

 were put on the barrels of unthinned fruit and M. B. D. on the 

 barrels of thinned fruit so that the shipment could be traced to 

 the selling point. 



Assuming that the apples would have been the same on thin- 

 ned as on unthinned trees, had the thinning not been done, the 

 yield from five trees would have been 19 barrels or the same as 

 that actually picked. This shows that thinning does not nee- 



