MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 417 



THINNING FRUIT. 



The practice of removing the surplus fruit from trees which have 

 ambitiously undertaken more than they can properly perform without 

 injury to the present crop, and permanent injury to the trees them- 

 selves in many cases, is an operation which needs only a careful, thor- 

 ough trial to commend itself to all painstaking fruit-growers. Many 

 who acknowledge that the crop, after thinning, will sell for more money 

 per tree than if not thinned, are still unwilling to admit that the gain 

 will pay for the extra labor involved. Well, about how much more 

 time is required to remove 500 apples, pears or peaches in June and 

 500 more in October than would be occupied in picking the entire 1,000 

 in October 1 ? 



Further than this, it is a well-known fact that the production of 

 the seed of a fruit causes by far the greater draft upon the vitality of 

 the tree than the formation of the pulp surrounding it; also, that 1,000 

 small apples will contain nearlv twice the weight of seeds found in 500 

 specimens double their size of the same variety, and thus be much more 

 exhaustive to the tree. An incidental benefit which may result from 

 thinning of fruit: The horticulturist may, in thinning the fruit, notice 

 many young shoots that by pruning time next spring will become stout 

 limbs to be cut off; whereas, now they may be easily rubbed off, while 

 the plant-food required for the formation will be saved for the tree and 

 fruit. — Popular Gardening. 



A CHEAP EVAPORATOR. 



Prof. Arnold, before the Michigan Horticultural Society, said : 

 At a small expense I made a dryer that did good work. I laid up a 

 brick wall of three sides, about thirty inches square and three feet 

 high, inside of which I placed an old box-stove of large size, and on 

 top of the brickwork I set a box 27x28 inches inside, and about five 

 feet high above the brick work, with a door in front, which, when open, 

 would admit ten sliding trays twenty-seven inches square. These trays 

 were made of light basswood frames and mosquito netting tacked on 

 the underside of the frames, although they could be used either side up. 

 The netting required replacing once during the season. In the even- 

 ing my son or hired man would pare about a barrel of apples in an 

 hour, one other person and myself would trim the ends, cut the apples 



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