320 Report of the Horticultural Department of the 



COST OF THINNED AS COMPARED WITH 

 UNTHINNED FRUIT. 



In these experiments it has taken from one-half hour to. five 

 hours to thin a tree. The time required varies with the size of 

 the tree and the amount of the crop. Usually the thinning to- 

 gether with the gathering of the ripe fruit has taken about twice 

 as much time as it has to gather the corresponding unthinned 

 fruit when ripe. Doubtless many fruit growers have an idea 

 that thinning apples is a more expensive operation than it really 

 is. No time is taken up with handling the fruit when thinning 

 as it is when the ripe fruit is gathered. The fruit which is taken 

 ofT in thinning is allowed to drop to the ground, whereas the ripe 

 fruit must be put into baskets or other receptacles and carried 

 away. The cost of thinning mature, well-loaded trees ought not 

 to exceed fifty cents per tree and probably would average less 

 than that. 



The cost of producing thinned as compared with unthinned 

 apples includes another factor not yet mentioned, and that is the 

 expense of grading the fruit. The thinned apples as a rule can 

 be graded more easily and rapidly than can corresponding un- 

 thinned apples. Resides this thinned apples have proportionately 

 less of drops and culls, which increase the cost of handling the 

 crop and which are the least profitable grades of the fruit. 



