294 Report of the Horticultural Department of the 



than from corresponding unthinned trees. Where the fruit set 

 sparsely before it was thinned, the thinning had no appreciable in- 

 fluence on its color. 



Size. Whenever the trees bore well thinning had the effect of in- 

 creasing the size of the fruit. This occurred with Baldwin and Hub- 

 bardston more often than with Greening, which may be accounted 

 for by the fact that the Greening trees did not carry any crops so 

 heavy as the heaviest crops of Hubbardston and of Baldwin. 



Market value. The intrinsic value of the apples from the con- 

 sumer's standpoint was generally increased by thinning, the thinned 

 fruit being usually superior in size, color and general quality. The 

 thinned fruit, as a rule, was better adapted than the unthinned for 

 making fancy grades, for marketing in boxes, etc. Where such ways 

 of marketing can be advantageously used the thinned fruit should 

 bring an increase in price corresponding to its superiority in real 

 value. But where it must be put upon the ordinary market in barrels 

 there is less chance for the thinned fruit to sell at sufficient advance 

 over the unthinned to pay for thinning, especially if the thinned fruit 

 cannot be furnished in large quantities. 



Amount and regularity of fruit production. In these experiments 

 the practice of thinning the fruit did not appear to cause any material 

 change in either the amount or the regularity of fruit production. 



Methods of thinning. No exact rule for thinning apples should 

 be laid down. The requirements vary with the different individual 

 trees and with the same tree in different seasons. The amount of 

 thinning should be suited to the conditions as shown by the age and 

 condition of the tree, by the amount of fruit which has set and by 

 the distribution of the fruit on the tree. In thinning apples all 

 wormy and otherwise inferior specimens should first be removed and 

 no more than one fruit from each cluster should be allowed to re- 

 main. After this is done, if there is a full set of fruit greater im- 



