WINTER MEETING AT LEBANON. 285 



profitable crop, because the fruit is generally small, and therefore not 

 so salable as larger fruits, it certainly follows if a fruit-grower has 

 large, fine and highly colored fruit he need not fear for wanting a market. 

 The only way to obtain the best of results is by thinning. A large 

 . apple, pear or peach sells even in a dull market quicker than smaller 

 fruits, and therefore it pays to produce the best of everything. It is 

 equally certain the larger and finer the fruit, the better the flavor, for 

 fruit grown on a tree or vine too full never has that quality, than where 

 there is only a moderate quantity on the tree. Who likes a small Ben 

 Davis or a small Winesap, or any other kind ? Even a small strawberry 

 don't taste as good as a larger one, should the cream be ever so rich ; 

 certainly there are some exceptions, for sometimes a very large fruit is 

 often coarse, but it always outsells the small ; therefore, thin your 

 fruits. The farmer thins his corn, the market gardener his radishes 

 and other crops, the florist thins his chrysanthemums, and all do it for 

 the same object, to obtain the largest and best of the various kinds. 

 Why should the fruit-grower thin his fruits ? We should thin our fruits 

 for another reason, and that is for the sake of the health of the tree. 

 A tree with too much fruit on is overtaxed, and very often a feeble 

 growth is the result, and in a few years the tree gets sickly and prema- 

 ture decay follows, for the vitality of the tree or vine is overtaxed in 

 ripening too much fruit. It is much better and more satisfactory to 

 have fine specimens and not so many, and in the long run a few bushels 

 of first-class fruits bring more money than a great quantity of small, 

 knotty and scabbed fruits, and besides there is more pleasure in handling 

 fine specimens ; therefore, thin your fruits. Not only apples, pears and 

 peaches are benefited by thinning, but plums, quinces, and especially 

 grapes, are very much improved by thinning. 



I saw, the past season, a number of Concord vines literally loaded 

 with fruit, but mark the results. Very little of the fruit was fit to eat ; 

 the berries were small, the bunches smaller, and in many instances the 

 vine so much damaged as to be almost worthless. Strawberries can 

 be made double their size by a liberal thinning. In fact, the very best 

 show fruits of any kind for exhibitions are produced by this method. 

 Why do young trees or vines bear at first much better aud finer fruits 

 than when older ? Solely because the tree or plant has not so much 

 fruit to ripen. The production and ripening of the seeds of any kind 

 of fruit takes more of the vitality, and often nearly destroys the tree 

 or vine. Very often whole orchards may be seen sickly and in an un- 

 healthy condition, poor growth, and looking stunted. The principal 

 cause comes from overbearing. Nature sometimes thins the fruit in a 

 cold winter or a late spring frost, but Jack Frost not being a very good 



