MICHIGAN" STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 375 



VI. THIN^NING OF PKUIT. 



This is another lesson which we have learned, and the neces- 

 sity of which we have often endeavored to impress upon culti- 

 vators, and which every successive season teaches with stronger 

 emphasis. It is absolutely necessary for all who send fruit to 

 market, to send large fruit, and the markets are constantly and 

 progressively requiring large and fine fruit. Even the Seckel 

 pear, which once commanded, in Boston market, the highest 

 price, will not novr, unless of extra size, sell for any more 

 than, if as much as, common varieties of larger size. A 

 medium-sized fruit, or even one of smaller size, may be more 

 economical for use; but until some decided change, in tiie 

 preferences of the majority of purchasers, shall take place, 

 large fruit will sell better than small. To produce this, the 

 fruit must not only have good cultivation, but must be thinned ; 

 and we agree with Mr. Meehan that "one-half the trees which 

 bear fruit every year, would ba benefited by having one-half 

 the fruit taken off as soon as it is well set ; and that the over- 

 bearing of a tree will, in a few years, destroy it." We may lay 

 it down as a certain rule, that excessive production is always 

 at the expense of both quantity and quality, if not in the same 

 season, then in succeeding ones; for when branch is contend- 

 ing with branch, leaf with leaf, and fruit with fruit, for its 

 supply of light and food, it would be indeed an anomaly in 

 nature, if this should not result in permanent injury to the 

 trees as well as to the annual crop. 



VII. INSECTS AND DISEASES. 



The subject of insects and diseases is daily attracting more 

 attention, for their depredations are daily becoming a greater 

 evil, and the importance of entomological investigations is 

 every day more plainly seen. It is less than fifty years since 

 Dr. Harris first published his work on " Insects Injurious to 

 Vegetation," and great is the debt of gratitude which we owe 

 to him and to the succeeding investigators who have given 



