STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 39 



drop along in July. We wait until that is over, then start in on 

 our thinning work. There is an advantage in leaving it just a 

 little late in that you can tell better what fruits will be best to 

 leave on the trees. They form up a little and any fruits that 

 are going to be deformed you can readily detect at that time. On 

 the other hand it is not advisable to leave it too late, because you 

 take a certain amount of energy from the tree. The nourishment 

 required to produce that fruit and carry it along to a certain 

 point, would be wasted, while it would go into the remaining 

 fruit, if the fruits were removed earlier. Our thinning is usually 

 done in the latter part of July. I would say that possibly about 

 the 15th of July would be the time that thinning could be prac- 

 ticed here to advantage. 



Question: What distance do you advise thinning out fruit? 

 That is, how near together is it advisable to leave it on the trees ? 

 You spoke of two, four or six inches? 



Prof. Blair : That is a thing that is very difficult to work 

 out, — the distance at which you should thin your fruit. It is a 

 question that the fruit grower must work out, like his fertilizing 

 problem, for himself. Condition of his soil, cultivation given, set 

 of fruit and vigor of trees, all must be taken into consideration. 

 It may be possible that he could thin to eight inches apart and do 

 it profitably, while his neighbor under other conditions could not 

 do so. I would say as a general thing that the first thing for a 

 fruit grower to do would be to give what we call a general 

 thinning, that is, removing deformed fruits, removing any fruits 

 that have been punctured by insects or injured by insects in any 

 way, or which have any sign of scab ; also where there are two 

 or three apples in a fruit cluster, removing to one. That is what 

 I would suggest for the grower, and then he can follow on from 

 that, thinning more vigorously if he finds it profitable. In any 

 case I would not advise thinning over about six inches under 

 average conditions even for the large apples. 



Question : Have y,ou found serious difficulty in fruit becom- 

 ing too large in any season ? 



Prof. Blair : Yes, there is a possibility of that. A great many 

 of our markets, especially for some varieties that we have, prefer 

 for the table moderate sized apples rather than very large ones 

 and in cases where we have high cultivation we have to be care- 

 ful not to get abnormally large apples, as we would were too 



