THINNING FRUITS. 



'■f^HE past season has demonstrated more 

 A clearly than ever the necessity of pro- 

 ducing a better grade of fruit than can be 

 grown by the " let alone " method so long 

 practiced by most of our growers. The 

 results of thinning out a liberal amount of 

 fruit from an overloaded tree or plant are 

 (i) that the foliage becomes more vigorous 

 and more resistant to insect and fungous 

 pests ; (2) the remaining fruit grows larger 

 and more perfect in size, color and quality; 

 (3) the larvae of the codling moth, the in- 

 sect producing wormy fruit in the apple, 

 pear and quince and the larvae of the 

 plum curculio that produces the wormy 

 plums and cherries, are destroyed in the 

 immature fruit when it dries up or decays 

 on the ground, and much less labor is re- 

 quired to sort and pack the remaining fruit 

 when it is harvested. The price obtained 

 for fruit from carefully thirmed trees or 

 plants is certain to be much higher than if 

 all the fruit were allowed to remain un- 

 thinned, while the cost of thinning is not 

 much greater than would be the extra cost 

 of the final picking and sorting of so much 

 inferior fruit. 



The best time for thinning fruits is us 

 soon as it can be determined what speci- 

 mens are injured by insects or by any other 



cause. The best time for the apple, pear, 

 peach and plum is early in July. The 

 grape should be thinned as soon as the 

 size of the bunches can be determined, 

 which may be the last of June or the first 

 of July. The amount of fruit to be re- 

 moved will depend largely upon how much 

 has set. In some cases three-fourths should 

 be removed. In the case of peaches and 

 plums the fruit should not mature on the 

 branches nearer than six inches apart if the 

 whole tree is fruiting. With apples and 

 pears the amount of thinning to be done 

 must depend upon the size and vigor of the 

 trees, but all wormy and deformed fruits 

 should be removed even to the extent of tak- 

 ing the entire crop, for in the majority of 

 cases such fruit only serves to increase the 

 number of insects the next year and will not 

 pay the cost of harvesting if allowed to ma- 

 ture. In thinning the grape all small 

 bunches should be removed if the fruit is in- 

 tended for market, as only large, full 

 bunches will sell for good prices, and only a 

 limited amount, depending upon the strength 

 of vine, should be allowed to remain on each 

 cane. In vineyards at full growth from 10 

 to 20 pounds of fruit will be all that each 

 vine can mature and retain its vigor. — Mas- 

 sachusetts Experiment Station Report. 



MARKETING CHERRIES. 



THIS is an old topic, but will be of in- 

 terest, notwithstanding. I see near- 

 ly every day, in fruit time, examples of loss 

 and waste, in putting fruit upon the market 

 in an unxipe or unmerchantable condition. 

 Only the other day I saw in a grocery some 

 cherries in a drawer in front of a grocery, 



which had been picked as much as six days 

 sooner than they should have been. 



They were not only small and grjeen but 

 very imperfect. There were stems without 

 cherries and cherries without stems, and all 

 together about as uninviting a lot as I ever 

 saw. 



