THINNING THE FRUIT. (yi 
do not so soon disappear. The petals retain their color 
and stand out with prominence so long after the others 
have withered away as to suggest a second blossoming. 
CHAPTER XIV. 
THINNING THE FRUIT. 
THE story is told of a man who said it took him thirty 
years to get moral courage to prune his fruit trees. A 
large proportion of cultivators never attain the courage 
of their convictions in this matter. By far the most ex- 
peditious method of thinning fruit is to prune judi- 
ciously. In some varieties, after having pruned quite 
severely, there is too much fruit set to be carried to 
maturity, and a large thinning out is a necessity to pre- 
vent the trees from overbearing. ‘To many, it seems an 
unjustifiable waste to pull off the finely-set specimens ; 
and with a serious doubt as to the wisdom of the oper- 
ation, they allow their trees to overbear. As an inevi- 
table result, the fruit is small and inferior, the trees 
are overtaxed in the effort to mature more than they 
are able to perfect, and, as a consequence, they must 
have an off year to rest and recuperate. We hardly 
realize that a tree is overbearing till the fruit has at- 
tained considerable size, and then we hate to pull off 
enough to relieve the strain. I sometimes take off half 
or two-thirds, and then there is a plenty left to be of the 
first quality. The number of bushels will be about the 
same, and the quality of the fruit greatly improved. In 
years of abundance the large fruit will sell when the 
small finds no market at any price. This difference in 
the market value of fine fruit and that produced by 
overbearing trees shows the great importance of properly 
thinning, 
