THINNING THE FRUIT 



231 



important of all, it relieves the owner of the moral responsibility 

 of deciding what to do with these inferior specimens when 

 packing time comes. 



4. The fruit is of better size and color. The improvement in 

 these respects will be a revelation to the man who has never 

 thinned. The fruit seems to swell right out after the tree is 

 thinned and runs a very even grade at picking time (Fig. 109). 



FIG. 109. Branch of an apple tree that was thinned twice. Even now there are some 

 apples left that should have been taken off. The most difficult thing in thinning is to get 

 the men to take off enough fruit. 



5. The trees will bear more regularly. This seems to be the 

 universal testimony of those who have tried it for a sufficiently 

 long period. Of course a single year will not demonstrate it, 

 nor is it probable that old trees which have formed the " habit" 

 of biennial bearing can ever be brought entirely to annual 

 bearing. But there seems to be little doubt of its efficacy on young 

 trees, though it is probable that with fruits like the apple and 

 pear, which bear on spurs, it will be necessary to remove all the 

 fruit from some spurs in order to induce this annual bearing. 



