THE THINNING OF FRUIT 103 



pointed penknife or scissors ; for by nipping them off with the 

 thumb and forefinger, those designed to be left on are often 

 displaced, as also the young branches and leaves .... 



"Though I advise to thin fruit at different times, yet it 

 should not be done later than the month of May; for if they 

 are suffered to grow pretty large they rob one another, and 

 none should be left on so near together as to touch before 

 they be full grown; for they are apt to throw each other off 

 or at least to spoil their shapes. Besides, they never come 

 to the size they would otherwise do, and large fruit when 

 ripe is always the best flavored. ..." 



Many of the same ideas have been repeated in subsequent 

 works on fruit-culture, some writers enlarging and elaborating 

 on these views. Two or three points are practically always 

 mentioned by the early as well as modern writers, such as: 

 the value of the practice to increase the size and appearance 

 of the fruit; as a means of bringing about annual bearing; 

 and to prevent the breaking of trees from overbearing. 



89. Philosophy of thinning. — The theory of thinning is 

 very simple, a theory that is paralleled in many branches of 

 agriculture. The farmer thins his corn, the gardener his 

 carrots and beets, the florist disbuds his carnations, chrysan- 

 themums, and many other plants, and the forester thins his 

 stand of timber, all for the same general purpose of allowing 

 the remaining plants or parts ample room and food for 

 development, or in other words to relieve the struggle for 

 existence. For the same reason the fruit-grower also removes 

 a portion of his fruit when it sets too heavily. 



It is natural for every plant to reproduce itself, for two 

 of the fundamental laws in plant and animal life are nutri- 

 tion and reproduction. Fruit-trees, however, very often set 

 a great many more fruits than the}^ can properly mature. 

 This distributes the moisture and food materials in so many 

 channels that it results in small and inferior fruit. In this 



