THINNING OF FRUITS. 99 



allowances should therefore be made for this fickleness of the 

 seasons. 



One word in regard to the importance of 



THINNING OF PEUITS. 



There is no branch of fruit culture which has been so much 

 neglected as the proper thinning of the crop. Experience has 

 taught us as one of the most important lessons in good cultiva- 

 tion, the necessity of thinning our fruits, in order to produce 

 those of first quality, and that where trees are allowed to over- 

 bear, exhaustion and barrenness will certainly ensue. 



The thinning of fruits, especially the apple, pear, peach, plum 

 and grape, is indispensable for the production of large, fair and 

 valuable fruits. The capability of all created things has a limit. 

 If a tree or vine bear beyond its strength, its fruit will be in- 

 jured, its growth retarded, its life shortened. Fruits that are 

 properly thinned will command a much higher price and a more 

 ready sale than those that are not thinned. One of our farmers, 

 near Boston, always thins his fruit — another, adjoining his orch- 

 ard, neglects it. The location and treatment of these two orch- 

 ards in other respects are much the same, but the former realizes 

 for his crop of Baldwin apples about four and a half dollars per 

 barrel, while the latter, standing by his side in the market, 

 receives less than three and a half dollars per barrel for his. 



And so with the pear ; while those properly thinned and 

 cared for will command $4 per bushel, those of the common 

 run will not command more than $2.50 ; and this rule applies 

 not only to fruits, but to all vegetable productions. All have 

 observed that the overbearing of a fruit-tree one year is likely 

 to produce barrenness the next. Hence the necessity of thin- 

 ning our fruits, so as to avoid exhaustion of the tree, and to» 

 keep up a regular succession of good fruit. Even our Baldwin 

 apple, which from its great productiveness, bears only on alter- 

 nate years, we think might, by thinning, be made to bear annual 

 crops. 



Where fruits are crowded, they are not only deprived of light, 

 air and heat, but actually of room, so that the adjacent sides of 

 two fruits are compressed and not fully developed. Not only 

 the form, but the color is improved by thhming, and where 

 fruits are crowded in clusters, they are more likely to be at- 



