16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



comes from an excess. Two gallons evenly applied will 

 be sufficient for a tree capable of bearing four barrels as 

 a full crop. The first application should be made as 

 soon as the trees are out of bloom, the second say seven 

 days later, and the third ten days after the second. If 

 no rain occurs from the time of the first spraying until 

 three days after the last, the protection should be at its 

 maximum ; but rains are common at that season, and often 

 interfere seriously. In such an emergency, the applications 

 may be made directly after a rain if the foliage is dry, and 

 it will be useful if only twenty-four hours intervene before 

 the next rain. Just how this simple operation produces the 

 effect that follow^s, is not entirely clear in all respects, but it 

 is probable that the curculio, which is responsible for much of 

 the deformed fruit, produces this condition by taking bites out 

 of the skin of the forming apple or pear. Development is ar- 

 rested at these spots, and as the substance of the fruit around 

 grows, there is formed a knurl which increases as the speci- 

 men enlarges. It is possible also that the female eats the chips 

 she makes when forming the crescent excavation. It is easy 

 to comprehend how the young codling worm, hatched on the 

 outside of the skin within the calyx, consumes an atom of 

 the poison before entering the substance of the fruit. 



Thinning Fruits. 

 Inasmuch as the largest and most perfect specimens are 

 those that pay the best profit over the cost of production, 

 I come now to consider the mode of procedure that w^ill 

 result in the greatest proportion of such, and at the 

 same time reduce all others to the minimum. This is quite 

 possible by a small expenditure of intelligent labor applied 

 at the right time. If the arsenical spraying has been 

 effectually used, most of the fruits will have been saved 

 from the injuries caused by insects. When they have 

 attained the size of from one-half to one inch in diameter, it 

 will be time to commence a systematic thinning. As a 

 rule, bearing trees set many more fruits than they can 

 carry to perfection ; and, for the benefit of those which are 

 to mature, all others should be removed before they have 

 made much demand upon the fertility of the soil or the 

 strength of the tree. 



