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I know of no better investment in the line of fruit grow- 

 ing than the thinning of apples. I am sorry to say it is not 

 practiced extensively in New Jersey at the present time. It 

 seems to me it should require only a very little consideration 

 to see this is one of the most reasonable things in the whole 

 orchard proposition, 



Apple trees, like most other things, have a limit to their 

 productiveness, and it is very much better from several 

 points of view to grow from five to six barrels of strictly 

 fancy fruit per tree than it is to produce twice that quantity 

 of small, inferior and undesirable apples for which there is 

 no market except at a very low figure. 



Apples should be thinned from at least eight to ten 

 inches apart, according to the variety. 



It should be done early in the season if expected to 

 benefit the developing of fruit buds for the next year's 

 crop. 



Many growers have the idea that thinning apples is a 

 very tedious and expensive business. It is just the oppo- 

 site. Any intelligent person will very soon get the idea 

 and the work can be done much faster than expected. Some 

 care must be exercised to get the men to take enough of the 

 fruit off, especially those of little experience. This is the 

 greatest trouble I have ever had, but it is usually reme- 

 died after seeing the results of the first. Small shears 

 should be used in doing the work. It can be done much 

 faster and with less danger of loosening the stems of the 

 remaining apples than if picked by hand, especially if the 

 apples are in clusters, as they often are. 



Where thinning is practiced the fruit can be picked 

 much quicker and packed faster, and we find it more satis- 

 factory from every standpoint. 



We are living in an age of improvement and we must 

 expect to adopt new methods in fruit growing as well as in 

 other lines of business. 



It is a large percentage of strictly fancy apples that 

 is desired and will return the largest profit to the grower, 



