304 Report of the Horticultural Department of the 



The unthinned Greening trees having less of a crop than those 

 which were thinned produced just as fine fruit as did the thinned 

 trees. The Baldwins of both lots bore much heavier crops than 

 did the Greenings. The thinned Baldwins gave fruit clearly 

 superior in grade, average color and quality to that borne by the 

 unthinned Baldwins, but the total yield was less. Whether the 

 gain in the size, appearance and quality of the thinned fruit would 

 counterbalance in market value the loss in yield from thinning 

 was not decided. It is not easy to determine this definitely 

 where only such small amounts of fruit can be offered to the 

 wholesale trade. 



Record for i8pp. — Neither the Baldwin nor the Greening trees 

 upon which the experiment of thinning the fruit to four inches 

 apart was being tried bore enough in 1899 to give a chance for 

 thinning the fruit. From other trees in the orchard of the same 

 kinds and of the same age, four each of the Baldwin and the 

 Greening which were carrying good crops of fruit were selected 

 for carrying on this part of the experiment. The Baldwins were 

 given numbers 20, 21, 22 and 2T, and the Greenings 24, 25, 26 

 and 27. Nos. 21, 22, 24 and 26 were thinned and the others 

 were left unthinned for comparison. The thinning was done 

 June I2th and 13th. The largest fruits at this time had a diam- 

 eter of about three-fourths of an inch. A statement of the time 

 required for thinning follows: 



No. 21 Baldwin 5 hours. 



No. 22 Baldwin 3^ hours. 



No. 24 Greening 3 hours. 



No. 26 Greening 2^ hours. 



When the crop was gathered it was sorted as usual by putting 

 into No. I grade nothing under two and one-half inches in diam- 

 eter. The following table shows the yield by grades: 



