34: Lessons in Fruit Growing. 



to apply potasli where wood ashes are not available. One 

 hundred to 200 pounds per acre is a good annual dressing. 



When nitrogen is needed it may be directly applied in 

 stable manure, of which a moderate dressing will usually 

 suffice. The amounts of these fertilizers noted may be 

 understood to apply to orchards 5 to 10 years after the trees 

 commence bearing. As the trees attain full size the amounts 

 may be considerably increased. 



Potash and bone meal are preferably applied in the fall. 

 The other fertilizers named are better applied in the spring 

 before plowing. 



38. Thinning: fruit, i. e., picking off a part of the fruit 

 before it is full grown to enable the remainder to attain 

 larger size, is practiced by the more progressive growers in 

 case of the larger tree fruits. Thinning is especially im- 

 portant in very fruitful seasons, and in varieties that tend 

 to overbear. The more defective specimens should be re- 

 moved as soon as the damage to the fruit by its chief enemy, 

 as the codling moth in the apple, or the curculio in the 

 plum, becomes visible. Thinning rarely if ever increases 

 the total yield of fruit, but it often materially increases the 

 amount of the first-grade fruit, and it tends to prevent the 

 harmful draft on the tree caused by an excessive crop. 

 Thinning pays best when the fruit is grown for those 

 markets that pay special prices for extra fine fruits. It is 

 expensive when carefully done, but it dispenses with the 

 cost of harvesting and marketing the part of the fruit that 

 is sure to yield the smallest returns, while it enhances the 

 value of the part left on the tree. 



39. Picking: conveniences. Various devices are needed 

 to enable the picker to reach the fruit, the nature of which 

 will depend much upon the height of the trees. Whatever 



