612 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE OfE. Doc. 



any other line of our work. Some say 6 inches to 8 inches; but the 

 best way is to go into your orchard and look it over, and then get the 

 right distance. Most of us err on the side of not thinning enough, 

 rather than too much. 1 thin all kinds of fruit in my orchards — 

 apples, peaches and plums last spring, but in the midst of our thin- 

 ning, cherry picking time came on, and we were obliged to drop every- 

 thing for at least live weeks and get our cherries off; and at the end of 

 that time, we found that on the trees that had been thinned, the 

 pJums were 50 per cent, to 75 per cent, larger, and we got more 

 bushels. 



Now, just a few words regarding picking and marketing. I think 

 a great many growers do not do enough work on their fruits to 

 get the best returns. Some growers pick them all at one time. We 

 go over our peaches every other day, and then make several grades 

 of them. It means extra work to do this, but you get better quality, 

 better work, and the consumer is better satisfied. We are better 

 situated for marketing our crop than a great many growers. We 

 are within half a mile of an electric road that gives us unequalled 

 service. They place a car on the siding for us every night, and 

 we keep out fruit in cold storage until evening, and then put it on 

 the car. Early in the season we use the eight-pound basket, like 

 the grape basket, because at that season most of the fruit is used 

 for eating. Later in the season we use the half bushel and bushel 

 basket. For long shipments we use what is called "the seven- 

 eighths basket," which will hold a full bushel heaped up. We grade 

 our peaches carefully, so there will be no bruises. Then in the 

 evening this car is taken out behind the regular car and shipped 

 South. We have found that it is a mistake to depend entirely upon 

 the larger towns. In towns of five to six thousand they have not the 

 facilities to get fruit that the larger cities have, and they are glad 

 to pay the price. xVlso, early in the season, we go to see the grocers, 

 and arrange with them to handle our fruit; we work for their 

 interest and expect them to work for ours, and it is usually very 

 satisfactory to both sides. One of the firm goes with the car and 

 sees that the fruit goes where it is intended to go, and gets there 

 in good condition. Of course, this is unusually good service, but 

 I think you can easily prevail on your trolley company to give 

 you the same kind of service, especially if there are competing lines 

 near you, or the trolley has a railroad to compete with. You will 

 be astonished to see the number of peaches you can market right 

 near home. 



TOMATOES 



By 0. W. WAID, Neiv Carlisle, Ohio. 



We will first consider the growing of tomatoes for the canning 

 factory and late tomatoes for city markets. There are limitations to 

 the profitable production of tomatoes at canning factory prices. 



