13 



In place of the potash 1 to 2 tons of good wood ashes might be 

 used with good results for a single application or once in four to six 

 years and especially on rather light land, but it is doubtful if equally 

 good results would be obtained if the ashes were used every year on 

 the same land. If less quickly soluble materials, like fine bone, 

 fish, tankage or stable manure are used for the supply of nitrogen, 

 they should be applied in the fall or winter that they may be abund- 

 antly available in the early part of the growing season, as was sug- 

 gested"fbr the peach. 



THINNING FRUITS. 



The past season has demonstrated more clearly than ever the 

 necessity of producing a better grade of fruit than can be grown by 

 the let alone method so long practiced by most of our growers. 'Jhe 

 results of thinning out a liberal amount of fruit from an overloaded 

 tree or plant are ( 1 ) that the foliage becomes more vigorous and 

 more resistant to insect and fungous pests ; (2) the remaining fruit 

 grows larger and more perfect in size, color and quality ; (3) the 

 larvae of the codling moth, the insect producing wormy fruit in the 

 apple, pear and quince and the larvae of the plum curculio that pro- 

 duces the wormy plums and cherries, are destroyed in the immature 

 fruit when it dries up or decays on the ground, and much less labor 

 is required to sort and pack the remaining fruit when it is harvested. 

 The price obtained for fruit from carefully thinned trees or plants is 

 certain to be much higher than if all the fruit were allowed to 

 remain unthinned, while the cost of thinning is not much greater 

 than would be the extra cost of the final picking and sorting of so 

 much inferior fruit. 



-TIME FOR THINNING. 



The best time for thinning fruits is as soon as it can be deter- 

 mined what specimens are injured by insects or by any other cause. 

 This time for the apple, pear, peach and plum is early in July. The 

 grape should be thinned as soon as the size of the bunches can be 

 determined, which may be the last of June or the first of July. The 

 amount of fruit to be removed will depend largely upon how much 

 has set. In some cases three-fourths should be removed. In the 

 case of peaches and plums the fruit should not mature on the 

 branches nearer than six inches apart if the whole tree is fruiting. 

 With apples and pears the amount of thinning to be done must 



