50 



N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 257 



Since thinuing comes in July when requirements for other orchard 

 work are negligible, thinning to make use of available labor is prob- 

 ably a good practice ; but whether it pays to hire additional help is an 

 unsolved problem. Those that have Wealthy trees feel that they must 

 thin; but on other varieties, there is no agreement as to the best 

 practice. 



PROPPING 



The propping operation included the hauling of props to the orchard 

 in the early fall, propping up limbs, and then picking up the props and 

 storing them after the crop was harvested. It did not take into ac- 

 count the cutting of props in the woods. In most cases the props had 

 been cut and prepared previous to this study. 



3fe.4 



302 





20.8 



14.fe 



'■■/' 



I 



10. 5 



.3 



1.3 



3_ 





1 



Fig. 



Some 



cost. 



8 



10 



11 



12 



2 3 4. 5 b 7 



Farm Number 



12. Man hours used in jyropping per unit of 1,000 boxes actual yield 



growers believe that propping saves enough breakage to pay for the 



Others do not. The work, if performed, can generally be fitted into 



periods when there is little other orchard work to do. 



No doubt, trees that are weak and have bad crotches will need to 

 be propped, but whether other trees need to be propped in a wholesale 

 way is a question. If the tree is trained from the beginning by in- 

 telligent pruning, how much propping is necessary? Possibly trees 

 that have been forced from the beginning by extra fertilizer need more 

 propping than others. The significant point is that some do no prop- 

 ping and seem to have no particular trouble even in a year of heavy 

 yields. Orchards 9 and 8 in 1927 with yields 2i/2 times the normal 

 did no propping. These operators take the attitude that the loss of a 

 limb, now and then, is of less consequence than the cost of propping. 

 However, propping comes in the early fall at a slack period in orchard 

 requirements. 



On Farm 1, the trees had been pruned in the vase shape, following 

 recommendations at the time, and on this account propping was im- 

 portant; 226 hours per 1,000 mature tree units, 30.2 hours per 1,000 

 boxes normal yield and 30.5 hours per 1,000 boxes actual yield were 

 used (Table 20). 



Farm 12 did about the same amount of propping. Farms 2 and 4 

 did a moderate amount. Farms 3, 5, 6 and 7 did very little. One 

 man's slogan was: "If a limb isn't strong enough to hold apples, I'll 

 grow one that will be." 



