80 FRUIT GARDEN COMPANION. 



one of the principal requisites in horticulture, though 

 almost universally neglected. 



Before I proceed to the method of thinning fruit, 

 I beg leave to state that my object is to consider the 

 subject in reference to its most extensive branch, 

 namely, the thinning of all kinds of fruit on trees, 

 vines, <$*c. I must direct the reader to that best 

 criterion of horticulture, the natural properties of 

 trees and vegetables. By due observation it will be 

 seen that fruit, as cherries, plums, pears and apples, 

 are generally the best in flavor when the crop is 

 thin ; and the crop in the following season in such 

 cases is pretty certain, if it is not injured by the 

 blight and other local causes. On the contrary, when 

 trees are thickly loaded, the fruit is not so good in 

 quality and flavor, and the crop in the succeeding 

 year is very uncertain ; the latter case is often ex- 

 emplified in trees which bear alternately every other 

 year. I think no person will deny the correctness 

 of the above assertions, nor, that it can be in a mea- 

 sure obviated by the thinning and regulating of fruit. 

 Practical gardeners well know that peach trees, 

 grape vines, and all kinds of fruit trees forced under 

 glass, bear regular crops of fruit without intermission 

 for many years, and that such trees and vines are 

 always thinned of such fruit as is considered super- 

 fluous. Instances might be quoted where fruit grows 

 almost natural, which is destitute of that richness of 

 flavor it would acquire if the tree had been thinned. 

 I do not recollect of seeing the plum bear so free 

 and thrive so well at any place as at Albany, New 

 York, which place appears to be quite congenial to 

 this fruit ; the gages, magnum bonum, and all the 

 finer varieties, are found there in abundance. But I 



