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BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



for thinning pears especially. The only difficulty with apples 

 is, that many stems of apples are so short, that it is not easy 

 to get hold of them ; but it will take a pear every time. ^ It 

 is carried up as close to the end of the stem as possible, given 

 a slight turn, which breaks it off at that point, and the pear 

 drops ; or, if you choose, the pear can, with a little care, be 

 conveyed down into your hand. It is not patented, and 



most any blacksmith can make it. The 

 inside edges of the fork should be square, 

 and it should be tempered rather soft. 

 My instructions to the pear-thinners are 

 these : There are four classes of pears to 

 be removed. In the first place, where 

 there are two or more growing in a clus- 

 ter, they are to take out all but one : 

 no matter how handsome the others 

 may be, or how tempting it may be to 

 let them remain, every thing is thinned 

 out to one pear in a place. Second, 

 ers'^ery pear that is deformed, that is not 

 going to be a perfect fruit when grown, 

 is taken out. It is nonsense to keep 

 your tree at work undertaking to grow 

 imperfect fruit that will never be worth 

 any tiling. Third, every pear that 

 shows evidence of the codling-moth is to 

 be removed ; next, all the small, weak 

 pears — every pear that cannot keep up 

 with its neighbors, — as Kearney says, 

 "• must go." 



That is severe thinning, but that is 

 sometimes only the beginning. Having 

 thinned out every thing that is imper- 

 fect, every thing that is in the way, then the tree is to be 

 looked at as a whole, to judge if it is bearing more than it 

 should. If it is, then the fruit is to be thinned out still fur- 

 ther. That is the most difficult thing in the whole operation 

 to do, — to thin out pears that are perfect, just as good as 

 their neighbors ; but they must come out because the tree has 

 too many. There is no rule about this : it is a matter of 

 education. A man must judge from his experience how 



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