EFFECT OF THINNING THE FRUIT 175 



annual growth thins peaches, quinces, raspber- 

 ries, blackberries, black currants, and, to a less 

 extent, red and white currants, and grapes, all 

 those plants which develop blossom -buds on the 

 wood of the last season, or which have a co- 

 terminal habit (page 59) of fruit -bearing. The 

 great disadvantage of thinning fruit by means 

 of pruning is the impossibility of knowing how 

 many buds or young fruits may subsequently be 

 destroyed by cold, insects or diseases. Yet the 

 practice should be more generally in vogue, for 

 in most cases of too heavy prospective fruit- 

 bearing the danger can be partially averted by 

 a cheaper means than hand-picking the young 

 fruits. With tender fruits and in cold climates, 

 this thinning by pruning should be delayed until 

 danger of winter- injury is thought to be past. 



The second part of the proposition is very im- 

 portant, the fact that the energies of the tree 

 can be conserved by thinning the fruit. This is 

 really a corollary of Section 12. It is necessary 

 to discover just how this conservation comes 

 about. We have observed (see Figs. 13, 14, 15) 

 that there is an alternation in fruit- bearing on 

 the individual spur because the demands made 

 by the fruit are so great that a fruit -bud cannot 

 develop the same year. In the year of fruit- 

 bearing, therefore, a small leaf -bud develops to 

 continue the spur the following year ; and in this 

 following and barren year, a fruit -bud is devel- 



