424 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



thinned also jn-uduced as much fruit as those that were unthinned 

 and more than those thinned to 4 inches apart. 



The Michigan Station conchides, as the result of experimental 

 work," that the possibility of overthinning peaches is practically nil. 

 A distance of 10 inches apart for fruit on peach trees appeared to be 

 none too great in the station's experiments. Data were secured at 

 the New Jersey stations'' which indicated that nearly twice as many 

 fruit buds matured on peach trees that had been severely thmned as 

 on trees left unthinned. In one instance 70 per cent of the peaches 

 was removed from the trees at thinning time, and on another lot of 

 trees 32 per cent was removed. On the heavily-thinned tree 2.8 

 baskets of fruit were obtained, each fruit averaging 4.48 ounces in 

 weight, and selling for $1 per basket. On the tree less severely 

 thinned 3.9 baskets of fruit were obtained, each fruit averaging 2.8 

 ounces, for which 45 cents per basket was obtained. It is esti- 

 mated that on an acre of 160 trees there was an advantage by thin- 

 ning of $171.20. 



As a result of work at the Canada Central Experimental Farm, 

 it is concluded that when a big crop of peaches has set, thmning is 

 highly remunerative. 



S. A. Beach states as a result of a number of years" experiments ui 

 thimiing peaches '^ that thinning considerably increases the size of 

 the fruit and that early thinning is more effective for tliis purpose 

 than late tliinning. The effect of thinning the first year was not as 

 marked in increasing the yield on the same tree the following year as 

 was anticipated. Professor Beach believes that pruning is the most 

 economical method of thinning the crop whenever this appears nec- 

 essary, and that thinning fruits in commercial, orchards with the 

 expectation of inducing regular bearing and increased }delds in suc- 

 ceeding years is of doubtful value. S^'stematic thinning of the fruit, 

 however, combined with skillful care in other directions, may mate- 

 rially strengthen the tendency of the tree to bear annually. Peach 

 trees may be severely impaired in vigor by maturing loo heavy loads 

 of fruit, })ut thinning should l)e the last resort after all the details of 

 fertilizing, cultivating, spraying, pruning, etc., have been attended to. 



A grower in California states,'' as the result of a comparison between 

 spring-pruned peaches after the fruit had set with winter pruning 

 and thinning the fruit by hand, that the spring-pruned peaches were 

 larger than the winter pruned and that spring priming can replace 

 winter pruning and thus save the cost of hand thinning. 



a Michigan Sta. Buls. ]87, 205. 



''New Jersey Stas. Rpts. 1000. p. 250: 1901. ).. 25.'^: American Agriculturi.si. G9 

 (1902), Nf.. 21." 



c California Fruit Grower, 29 (1902), X(.s. 727. 72«, 729. 



rf Pacific Rural Press, 61 (1901), No. 9. , 



