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THINNING AND HARVESTING FRUIT 



all diseased specimens should be carried from the orchard 

 and destroyed. Thinning also tends to increase the crops 

 in the off years of varieties that bear heavily one year 

 and lightly the succeeding year. 



The operation of thinning depends on so many condi- 

 tions that no definite rule can be given. Most growers 

 have learned by experience the proper distance that fruits 

 should be thinned. As a general rule apples should be 

 allowed to produce but one fruit to the spur and should 



Fig. 156. An overloaded peach tree. 



be thinned to a distance of six to ten inches. Large-sized 

 varieties of plums are thinned to three to four inches, the 

 smaller varieties are thinned to a less distance. Damson 



