GENERAL MANAGEMENT 75 



tion in most cases. The fruits, in considerable 

 number, though not nearly all of those punctured 

 by the curculio, fall to the ground at this season. 

 (2) The monilia, or fruit rot, which attacks fruit 

 and twigs, and which causes a certain proportion 

 of the young fruit to fall. (3) The leaf curl, an- 

 other disease which also injures fruit twigs and 

 stems and causes a certain amount of drop. (4) A 

 lack of pollination, which in other fruits, as the 

 plum, causes a large proportion of June drop, and 

 may have some influence also on the peach, al- 

 though it certainly cuts a much smaller figure here 

 than in the case of the plum. (5) There is further to be 

 considered the natural crowding of the fruit thickly to- 

 gether upon the stem. Once more, as so frequently hap- 

 pens in Nature, it is the survival of the fittest. The 

 best and strongest fruits cling to the stems and 

 crowd off the smaller and weaker ones. 



June drop is often spoken of as if it were a dis- 

 ease. It is not. It is simply the result of a series 

 of causes working together on the overstocked tree. 

 The June drop is also often spoken of as though it 

 were something very detrimental to a fruit grower's 

 interest and something which he should prevent if 

 possible. Quite the contrary is the fact. The June 

 drop is usually one of the fruit grower's best friends. 

 Very rarely, indeed, does it remove such a propor- 

 tion of the crop as seriously to reduce the final har- 

 vest. In the very large majority of cases these natu- 

 ral causes take off a large part of the fruit which 

 very much needs to be removed, and by so much 

 diminishes the important and almost necessary labor 

 of hand thinning which would come soon after the 

 time of the June drop. 



