New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 383 



sake of more accurate results in the experiments the thinning 

 was done more thoroughly and more carefully than would be the 

 case in ordinary practice. 



According to these results the second method of thinning is 

 enough superior to the first to more than pay for the extra work 

 involved. 



From the data now at hand the second and third methods 

 cannot well be compared. It is also too early to say much about 

 the effect which the thinning may have had on the development 

 of fruit buds for next season's crop. 



In view of the fact that the markets were so glutted with 

 apples from the crop of 1896 that in many instances the prices 

 which the growers realized did not cover the cost of packages 

 and the labor of picking, packing and handling the fruit, the 

 question arises whether it would not have been good economy to 

 have decreased the total yield of marketable apples one-fourth 

 by thinning the fruit in June. The experiments which have just 

 been discussed show that this might have been done so as to 

 decrease the yield of seconds and culls, yet increase the total 

 amount of No, 1 fruit, making the fruit altogether of a better 

 grade. With the markets relieved of a great amount of inferior 

 fruit better prices could reasonably be expected and the remain 

 ing fruit superior in appearance would have strengthened the 

 good reputation of New York apples in both home and foreign 

 markets. The overburdened trees relieved of an excessive crop 

 in such a favorable season as 1896 might be expected to provide 

 the extra nourishment necessary to the production of fruit buds 

 for the following season. 



