286 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



horticulturist, often goes to the other extreme — he does not take the 

 trouble to do the work understandingly, but thins the whole entire crop 

 clean out. When is the proper time to thin ? After there is no more 

 danger of late frosts, and the young fruit is well formed or about one- 

 quarter grown. At any rate, by that time the fruit grower can better 

 judge, for often a good deal of the young fruit drops from one cause 

 or another. 



It certainly is work to go over a number of trees to thin the fruit, 

 but when by so doing you can increase the quality, and get more 

 money in the market for the crop, besides the satisfaction it gives to 

 have the very best of the kind, and save your trees or vines, then it 

 well repays for the work done. How to thin : On small trees it is 

 easily done, but on large ones it is more laborious, for a step-ladder is 

 needed. Remove a part of the fruit by picking it off; if a tree is very 

 full, one-half or better two-thirds should be removed, and in such a 

 way so as to have the remaining fruit evenly distributed over the tree. 

 Thin your fruit, and you will find thai it pays, and it pays big. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Gano — I used to think it was not practicable to thin fruit. 

 I used to neglect it ; but this last year it has been my lot to thin thou- 

 sands and thousands of bushels of peaches It was not half the work 

 that might be imagined. We left the peaches from four to six inches 

 apart on the twigs. Our men varied from 100 to 150 trees each per 

 d?y. We took off thousands of bushels of fruit. The seed exhausts 

 the tree, not the fruit By thinning you increase the size of the fruit 

 without increasing the size of the seed. I would advocate thinning 

 fruit by all means. We can strip them off very rapidly. 



E. A. Riehl — I heartily indorse all that has been said on thinning 

 fruit. It is less work to thin your fruit than it is not to thin it. When 

 you market your-peaches you will have to pick them all, and they have 

 to be handled more if you leave them all on the tree than if you 

 dropped them on the ground while they are small. It is cheaper to 

 thin them and drop them on the ground than it is to cull them after 

 they are picked. I have done it, and I know what I am talking about. 

 If you once thin you will never give it up. Some varieties of fruit 

 grow large because the trees are tender and don't set a full crop. I 

 want those that set large crops, and I can give them size. Apples I 

 think can be thinned by pruning. Let peaches get about the size of 

 marbles or hickory nuts. It is the formation of the seed that is the 

 tax on the plant. 



We are not satisfied that we can fight the curculio with poison, 

 and for that reason we head our trees about four feet high, so we can 



