3i8 Report of the Horticultural Department of the 



obtained with the first method. In 1898 with a moderate crop 

 the first method gave the larger amount of No. i fruit, but since 

 the crop was Hghter than that borne by the trees upon which 

 the second method was tried the fruit was consequently less 

 thickly distributed over the tree and much of it really set thinner 

 than did the fruit on the trees treated by the second method. 

 The fact then that in this instance the fruit grown nominally 

 under the first method was superior in size to that produced under 

 t' e second method is really in line with the results of the previous 

 season's test, for although the fruit under the first method aver- 

 aged the larger there was really a less amount of it on the tree 

 than there was on the trees under the second method. It 

 appears, too, that when the fruit is thinned to six inches greater 

 improvement in grade is seen than when it is thinned to four 

 inches. No mathematically exact method can be followed in 

 thinning fruit because the amount of fruit which sets, the distribu- 

 tion of it on the tree and the ability of the tree to bring fruit to 

 perfection vary with the same tree from season to season, as well 

 as with different trees in the same season. 



6. IS IT PROFITABLE TO THIN APPLES? 



It has been shown that under certain conditions, at least, the 

 size and general cjuality of apples may be improved by thinning. 

 Whether or not this may be done with profit is a question which 

 cannot be given a definite general answer. In the experiments 

 under consideration where the size and quality of the fruit have 

 been improved by thinning the quantity of marketable fruit has 

 been reduced. If the fruit must be offered on the general mar- 

 ket, under existing conditions it is probable that the returns from 

 a thinned crop in many cases would not equal the returns which 

 the crop from the same trees would bring if unthinned. On 

 the other hand when a tree is overloaded and conditions are 

 such that it could not be expected to bring its fruit up to good 

 marketable size it would certainly be good economy to thin the 

 fruit enough to secure good average size. 



Tn these experiments the differences in value between the 

 thinned and the unthinned fruit were not demonstrated accurately 



