THINNING FRUIT. 



C/\ N^HIS is another part of the New 

 Fruit Culture which is absolute- 

 ly essential to success in plums, 

 apples, pears and peaches. 

 The absurd method of allowing each 

 tree to overload itself each alternate 

 year in its natural effort to produce 

 as many seeds as possible, regardless of 

 the size of the fruit must come to a stop, 

 and the fruit grower who means to suc- 

 ceed must aim at size of fruit and not 

 at the number of seeds. Even for 

 evaporating, buyers will not take apples, 

 for example, less than 2 inches n 

 diameter, and for export it is proposed 

 that we make the minimum for No. 1 

 grade 2% inches. Van Deman writes 

 very sensibly on this subject in Green's 

 Fruit Grower, he says : — 



There are several reasons why thin- 

 ning pays. The most important one is, 

 that it causes the fruit to be large and 

 well flavored instead of small and poorly 

 flavored. It is scarcely worth while 

 arguing about the difference in value 

 between large and small fruits of the 

 same variety, either for market or home 

 use ; and I would not do so if there 

 were not so many who continue to grow 

 so much of the latter kind. One big 

 Baldwin, Jonathan or any kind of apple 

 is worth more than twice as much as 

 two of half the size. In actual net pro- 

 fit it is worth fully four times as much 

 whether eaten or sold. The same is 

 true of pears, peaches, plums and all 

 other fruits. When there is a glut in 

 the markets it often occurs that small 

 and inferior fruits will not sell for 

 enough to repay the cost of gathering 

 and transportation. 



Now if the trees that bore these small 

 half or less than half-developed fruits had 

 been stripped of half or three-quarters 

 of them when they were about the size 



of marbles the remaining ones would 

 have grown to weigh nearly as much as 

 all of them and would have been worth 

 much more. 



There have been several experiments 

 made to obtain positive evidence as to 

 the profit or loss of thinning fruit and 

 what proportion should be removed. 

 The first extensive experiments of this 

 kind, of which I have knowledge, were 

 made in California some fifteen years 

 ago by Mr. A. T. Hatch, and were 

 made principally upon peaches and 

 pears. I heard him state that he tried 

 leaving the fruits different distances 

 apart ; some being just as nature had 

 placed them, some three, four, five and 

 six inches apart and so on up to a foot. 

 He said that he had finally decided that 

 for these two fruits about six inches gave 

 the best results. The open hand of the 

 workman was given them as a measure 

 by which to space them. In New York, 

 Connecticut, Michigan and Georgia 

 there have been several such tests with 

 apples, peaches, pears and plums. Only 

 a few persons have tried the plan upon 

 grapes, except in house culture. In 

 every case it has paid. A few have 

 thinned big trees of Baldwin, Esopus 

 and other apples, carefully charging all 

 expense of labor and crediting the trees 

 with the fruit sold. This having been 

 done in comparison with adjoining trees 

 that were not thinned, and of which 

 records were kept of fruit sold, it was 

 found that there was a very decided 

 balance in favor of thinning. If this 

 will pay on a few trees it will pay 

 on many. It is purely a matter of 

 business judgment as whether it should 

 be done or left undone ; just as a 

 farmer thins his corn to two or three 

 stalks to the hill and has big ears, or 

 lets five or six stalks stand to make fod- 

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