312 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICL'LTURE 



vigor, while a tree allowed to bear, an 

 enormous crop one year and none the 

 next may suffer the consequences of over- 

 production. 



Securing' Annual Crops Instead of 

 Alternate 



A tree will produce quantity at the ex- 

 pense of quality, and at the same time 

 utilize plant food that should be used in 

 making the fruit buds for the next year's 

 bloom. The law of Nature is to reproduce 

 its kind and it tends to do it even at the 

 expense of the welfare of the tree. An- 

 nual thinning tends to throw a tree into 

 annual bearing. When a tree has been 

 in the habit of bearing alternate crops, it 

 may take some time to induce it to bear 



every year by thinning. It has been 

 demonstrated in the orchard where this 

 experiment was carried on that by annual 

 thinning the Jonathan can be made to 

 bloom well every year. 



Frnit of Maximnm Size, Color and 

 Qnality 



The total averages, as given in the table 

 found in the different grades, illustrates 

 the points of size and color, for apples 

 have to be of a certain size and a certain 

 color to be packed In the first two grades. 

 The following table illustrates the com- 

 parative values of the different grades. 

 The culls were selling at the cannery and 

 evaporator at $7 per ton, or the equal of 

 $0,17.5 per 50-pound box. 



$8.08— $6.23=$1.85, total gain per tree. 



When trees are set 16x32 feet, there are 

 85 to the acre. A gain of $1.85 per tree 

 would make a total gain of $157.25 to the 

 acre. 



This seems strong evidence that thin- 

 ning the Winesap gives large returns for 

 time and labor expended. The above fig- 

 ures are conservative in at least two re- 

 spects: First. Many of the windfalls 

 which were counted as culls could never 

 have been sold for any purpose; espe- 

 cially was this true of the early dropped 

 windfalls. Also there is much doubt as 

 to whether the amount received for the 

 culls would have paid for the extra labor 

 required in picking, hauling and sorting. 

 Second. The extra amount of time that 

 it took to grade the apples from the un- 

 thinned trees for packing was consider- 

 able. These two expenses would alone 

 almost offset the cost of thinning. Uni- 

 formity of size was very characteristic 

 of the apples from the thinned trees, while 

 the apples from the unthinned ones were 

 of all sizes. 



Better colored fruit was always found 



on the thinned trees than on the un- 

 thinned, due largely to the fact that the 

 fruit on the unthinned trees was crowded 

 and consequently more or less shaded. 



The lessened percentage of wormy ap- 

 ples, due to picking and destroying the 

 apples infested by the first brood of 

 worms, would probably be a saving suf- 

 ficient to largely bear the expense of thin- 

 ning. 



How to Thin 



Study each tree individually and thin 

 so that at picking time the tree will hold 

 up well under a load of uniform, good 

 sized and well colored apples. It takes 

 experience and study to get the very best 

 results from thinning. 



The experiment indicates that best re- 

 sults in thinning the Winesap can be at- 

 tained when the apples are thinned to a 

 distance of from nine to ten inches. It 

 is well to commence at the top of the 

 tree and work down. Perhaps, if there 

 is any difference in distance to be made, 

 it would be better to thin the apples on 

 the lower limbs next to the trunk of the 



