New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 



315 



Table XI. — Showing Relative Position of the Six Trees as to 



Turn again to the question whether in these tests thinning 

 the fruit has to any considerable degree influenced either the 

 amount or the regularity of the crops produced and examine 

 the results from this standpoint. 



Baldwin under the first method, in which fruits were thinned 

 to one in a cluster, bore no fruit in 1897 and too light a crop in 

 1899 to offer opportunity for thinning. It was very productive 

 in 1896 and moderately so in 1898, thus showing its natural ten- 

 dency towards biennial crops. The thinning did not seem to 

 modify this tendency. Of the total yield which was fit for the 

 barrel in 1896 the thinned fruit formed 46 per ct. and the un- 

 thinned 54 per ct. In 1898 the record showed 43 per ct. and 

 57 per ct. respectively. It appears, therefore, that during the 

 four years of this test thinning the fruit did not cause the Bald- 

 win to bear more regularly nor more abundantly. 



Baldwin under the second method, in which fruits were thinned 

 to at least four inches apart, gave but very little fruit either in 

 1897 or 1899 on the trees which were under experiment in 1896, 

 viz., trees i to 6 (p. 306). It bore well in 1896 and nearly as well 

 in 1898, again showing its natural tendency towards biennial 

 bearing. Of the total fruit fit to barrel the thinned apples in 

 1896 formed 44 per ct. and the unthinned 56 per ct. In 1898 

 the figures stood 47 per ct. and 53 per ct. respectively. The rela- 

 tive increase in productiveness of the thinned over the unthinned 

 trees which appears in 1898 under the second method is equaled 

 by the relative decrease which appears under the first method. 

 Under the circumstances neither can be held to be very signifi- 

 cant. 



