242 



The Principles of Fruit-growing 



which the same may not be said. The fruit must all be 

 picked sooner or later, and it does not cost very much 

 more to pick it early in the season than to pick it late; in 

 fact, much fruit not worth picking in the fall might have 

 been eminently worth the labor if the trees had been 



Fia. 89. Duchess apple-orchard in Canada. 



thinned in the early summer. The practice is now assum- 

 ing very special importance because of the rigid and high- 

 class systems of grading fruits that are being adopted by 

 shipping associations. 



There are two general methods of thinning fruits: 

 One is by pruning, by means of which the superfluous 

 branches, or even the fruit-spurs themselves, are removed; 

 the other is the direct picking of the redundant fruits. 

 While pruning may accomplish much, it is not sufficient 

 when the best fruit is wanted. 



There is no reason in the nature of things why trees 

 should not bear annually; but the formation of the fruit- 



