CHAPTER XVI 



HOW TO PRODUCE LARGER FRUIT 

 AND FLOWERS 



TOMATOES, squash, pumpkins, and melons are 

 really fruits. We call them "vine fruits" because 

 they all grow on a vine. 



Perhaps many of you know how good orchardists 

 and vineyardists take off much of the small im- 

 perfect fruit when it is about half ripe. This is 

 called "thinning" and is done for two reasons, one 

 to get rid of small imperfect fruit that would not 

 sell for enough money to pay for the picking; the 

 other reason is so all the food now going into this 

 poor fruit can go to the good fruit and make it 

 larger and better. 



Vines do another thing that requires much sap 

 or food. They make long runners on which there 

 is often no fruit at all, but sap has to be sent to 

 them to feed leaves just the same; so we take off 

 some of the runners and sometimes some of the tiny 

 fruit too; then what is left grows very large. 



If you want very large tomatoes, cut the vines off 



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