HOW TO GROW AND MARKET FRUIT 



see this growth during the first year or two, as it is going on 

 in the fruit spur and the bud. We must understand it, how- 

 ever, and plan for it when we want the biggest crops. (For 

 an explanation of the difference between fruit buds and leaf 

 buds, see the pruning section.) 



A fruit spur usually has several fruit buds, all of which 

 blossom, and most of which set fruit and make a cluster. The 

 rule for thinning is to remove fruits until they are no closer 

 than four to six inches, doing the work as soon as they are 

 large enough to be found easily the size of hickory nuts 

 and as soon as the fruit has set tightly. If this is done, only 

 a tenth or a twentieth of the buds will mature fruit, although 

 nearly all are likely to set fruit at the beginning of the season. 



As soon as the baby fruit is taken off, the other nine (or the 

 other nineteen) buds will proceed to start fruit for the next 

 year or the second year, while the fruit allowed to hang on is 

 growing and ripening. A reserve crop always will be coming 

 on if proper thinning is practiced before the surplus fruit has 

 had a chance to exhaust the vitality of the buds, and this 

 will make certain the setting of a crop of fruit on that tree every 

 year. 



Thinning saves the tree, and by reducing the amount of 

 energy which the tree puts into growing its crop, actually 

 saves in fertilizer. It has been demonstrated frequently that 

 a fruit tree on which thinning has been done correctly needs 

 only half as much potash as is required by another on which 

 the fruit has not been thinned. 



Thinning would pay even though it should reduce the 

 total number of bushels by half, but it does no such thing. 

 We have seen trees from which 800, 1,200, 1,500 i, 800, and up 

 to 2,000 apples by actual count, each, had been thinned. Often 

 fewer were left on than were taken off. But it was found at the 

 end of the season that the trees had put enough extra size 

 into the apples remaining to make up for the difference in the 

 number. 



When a tree starts to develop 4,000 apples, take 2,000 of 

 them off, and the remaining 2,000 will make as many bushels 

 as the original 4,000 on that tree would have made. If apples 

 are thinned to six inches apart (other fruits in proportion), 

 the number of bushels will be changed but little; if they are 

 thinned to three inches, practically the same bulk will be borne, 

 there being more apples, smaller in size. Thinning within 

 reasonable limits influences the size and quality of the apples 

 but not the number of bushels. 



It is certain also that when fruit is thinned those left will 

 take on a higher color. A more correct way of describing the 

 process is that the color comes earlier in the season. All fruits 

 would color up in time, but winter comes on, and time is a 

 thing fruit does not have. Ripening on thinned trees is more 

 thorough and complete. Few apples will be ripe one side and 

 green the other; nearly all will be colored naturally and hand- 

 somely on both sides, and be ripe throughout. 

 i One reason why thinning is so effective is due to the fact 



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