THINNING FRUIT. 



method is employed almost exclusively. 



Among orchard fruits perhaps none 

 need thinning as much as Japanese 

 plums, except peaches which, in com- 

 mercial orchards, are thinned more sys- 

 tematically than any other fruits. It is 

 reported that in favorable years the 

 fruits jf Japanese plums set so thick as 

 to hide the limbs. In fact, the tendency 

 to overbear is considered by some to be 

 one of their greatest faults. Thinning 

 the fruits of these plums has been favor- 

 ably reported on by the Alabama Col- 

 lege Station. The size of the fruit was 

 increased noticeably by thinning. 



The tendency to overbear is also seen 

 in case of some varieties of native plums, 

 as is shown by an experiment with the 

 Gale seedling plum at Wisconsin Sta- 

 tion. About four-fifths of the fruit was 

 removed from a portion of a tree, leav 

 ing the fruits about 2 inches apart on 

 the branches. The fruits on this por- 

 tion of the tree were considerably larger 

 than on the unthinned portion, as is 

 shown in the illustration (Fig. 1377.) 



The Massachusetts Hatch Station has 

 reported the results of an experiment 

 with apples and plums. A tree each of 

 Gravenstein and Tetofsky apples was 

 thinned on July i, and a similar tree of 

 each variety left unthinned a? a check. 

 In case of the Gravenstein the yield 

 on the thinned and unthinned trees, 

 respectively, was first quality fruit, 9 

 bushels and 2^ bushels ; second qua- 

 lity fruit, I bushel and 2^ bushels; 

 windfalls, 9^/^ bushels and 10I/2 bushels. 

 In case of the Tetofsky the thinned 

 trees gave i bushel of windfalls, and the 

 unthinned tree 3 bushels ; of second 

 quality fruit the yield was one-half 

 bushel from each tree ; and of first qual- 

 ity fruit the thinned tree yielded 2 

 bushels and the unthinned tree none at 

 all. Allowing 60 cents per bushel for 

 fir.«:ts and 25 cents per bushel for seconds, 



2 



the market value of the thinned Grav- 

 enstein apples was over twice as much 

 as that of the unthinned, and of the 

 thinned Tetofsky apples eleven times as 

 much as that of the unthinned It cost 

 48 cents to thin the Gravenstein and 25 

 cents to thin the Tetofsky. The net 

 gain due to thinning was 85 cents for 

 the Tetofsky and $1.85 for the Graven- 

 stein. It is thought that the results 

 would have been more pronounced if 

 the thinning had been done two weeks 

 earlier. The large percentage of wind- 

 falls in case of the Tetofsky was believed 

 to be largely due to the fact that the 

 apples have very short stems and are 

 borne in clusters of from three to eight 

 fruits each, so that as they grow they 

 become very much crowded. With 

 trees having this characteristic, therefore, 

 thinning is especially valuable. 



The results with plums were similar 

 to those with apples as regards the in- 

 creased production of fruit. A tree 

 each of Guei and Victoria plums was 

 divided into approximately equal halves, 

 one half being thinned and the other 

 half left as a check. The thinned half 

 of the Guei tree yielded 9 quarts of 

 marketable fruit and the unthinned half 

 5^ quarts. The yield of marketable 

 fruit from the thinned and unthinned 

 halves of the Victoria tree was 16 quarts 

 and 9^^ quarts, respectively. The value 

 of the fruit was taken to be 9 cents per 

 quart, and the cost of thinning 12 cents 

 for the Guei and 18 cents for the Vic- 

 toria, giving a net gain due to thinning 

 of 20 cents and 41 cents, respectively. 



The advantages claimed for thinning 

 orchard fruits are about as follows : — 

 Thinning increases the size of the fruit, 

 gives it more color, and a better flavor. 

 It diminishes the amount of worthless 

 fruit, windfalls, etc., increases the amount 

 of No. I fruit, and in some cases in- 

 creases the total yield. 



65 



