110 POMOLOGY 



pink blush on one cheek, as compared with the check trees 

 on which nearly all the fruit was a little undersized, of a 

 greenish color, and had no evidence of the pink check. 



95. Quality improved by thinning. — Quality is more 

 difficult to define and tabulate, but the unanimous report of 

 experimenters and orchardists is that the enlarged and 

 highly colored fruit is better in quality than the smaller and 

 poorer specimens. 



96. Thinning to prevent breaking of limbs. — No one who 

 has been observing orchards for a period of years has failed to 

 notice the appalling breaking of limbs as a result of over- 

 bearing. Some trees and even orchards are so ruined after 

 some exceptionally heavy crop that they never regain in form 

 and symmetry what they lose in one season from lack of 

 proper pruning and thinning. The use of props is also much 

 reduced or entirely obviated in an orchard that has been well 

 thinned. 



97. Thinning to reduce disease and insect injury. — 

 In thinning the fruit, any that have been injured by insect 

 stings or early attacks of fungus, as well as ill shaped speci- 

 mens, would be removed. In the case of peaches and plums, 

 the amount of such disease as brown-rot is much reduced 

 when the fruit does not hang so close together and also the 

 spray solutions can better cover the entire surface of each 

 specimen. In the case of the apple, there would be less 

 opportunity for the second brood codhn-moth to find an 

 entrance if no two fruits touch. Thus the instances might 

 1)6 multiplied of greater injury from insect and disease if the 

 fruit is not thinned. 



98. Thinning to maintain the vigor of the trees. — It is 

 difficult to present experimental evidence directly on this 

 problem, but it has been the experience and observation of 

 fruit-growers for many years that a tree (especially a young 

 one) which bears an excessive crop of fruit may be perma- 



