386 State Horticultural Society. 



these catch crops a perfect succession of them can be had at all seasons. 

 As a rule, the leg'uminous plants are preferable to the others as catch 



crops. Most of the above belong to this class. — W. E. Farmer, of jSTew 



Hampshire, in Am. Cultivator. 



THINNING FKUIT. 



The practicability of thinning fruit and its feasibility from a com- 

 mercial standpoint, have been pretty well demonstrated in the last few 

 years. In western New York it has generally proved profitable where- 

 ever tried. Mr. John Craig reports, in the publications of the (Cana- 

 dian) central experimental farm, some results in thinning peaches and 

 plums which corroborates the notes given from Mr. Beach and others. 

 He concludes that, when a large crop of fruit is set, thinning peaches is 

 highly remunerative for the following reasons: (1) It increases the 

 weight of the yield. (2) It largely increases the size of the fruit. (3) 

 It reduces the number of matured seeds, thereby considerably lessening 

 the drain of the vitality of the tree. (4) It renders the crop less liabh? 

 to rot. Thinning plums likewise proved altogether worth while. 



GENEEAL CONCLUSIONS ON THE EKEEZE OF 1898-9. 



A careful canvass of the whole field, with the assistance of the lead- 

 ing fruit growers of the state, leads to the following conclusions: 



(1) That the lack of a protecting blanket of snow coupled with 

 unusually low temperatures was the chief cause of the great loss of 

 nursery stock and orchard trees. 



(2) That inasmuch as trees on north slopes suffered more than 

 frees on south aspects, and in proportion to the surface protection pres- 

 ent, the intensity of frost bore a definite relation to the amount of injury 

 inflicted. 



(3) That conclusive data are wanting to show that more injury 

 resulted on untiled orchard lands than on those supplied with tile drains. 



(4) That orchard and nursery trees suffered most on exposed dry 

 knolls with northern aspects than elsewhere. 



