74 THE AMERICAN PEACH ORCHARD 



at thinning time. In other words, it seems to be 

 profitable at an early thinning of the tree to remove 

 not merely one-half or two-thirds, but perhaps three- 

 fourths of the crop then hanging. A common rule 

 is to leave fruit every 4 inches on the branches, but 

 it seems the better practice in most cases to thin the 

 fruit out to 6 or even 8 inches apart. Some men say 

 as much as 10 or 12 inches apart is better and pro- 

 duces more first quality fruit which will sell at a 

 higher price. 



This work should De done rather early in the sea- 

 son, at least as soon as the June drop is completed 

 and when the fruit is not larger than small walnuts. 

 Early thinning seems to be much more satisfactory 

 than late thinning. The best way of doing this 

 thinning is to prune the tree, but trees which have 

 received rather strenuous pruning will still require 

 thinning of the fruit after fruit-setting time. This 

 work must be done by hand. Any such makeshift 

 as taking off the fruit with a hand rake or a base- 

 ball club has been found to be unsatisfactory. 



JUNE DROP 



In speaking of artificial thinning we have already 

 mentioned the June drop, which name has been given 

 to the natural thinning of the crop which takes place 

 every year during the early part of the growing sea- 

 son, usually in June. During this period a consid- 

 erable portion of the fruit set falls to the ground. 

 The amount may vary from 2 per cent to 95 per 

 cent, or the whole crop. As a rule, however, the 

 amount runs from 5 to 50 per cent. 



June drop is due to various causes, the most im- 

 portant ones being as follows : ( I ) The curculio, which 

 undoubtedly is responsible for much the largest por- 



