Pruning Mature Trees 143 



from axillary fruit-buds, but it is not so pronounced as 

 with the apple and pear. 



Thinning the Apple. Fixed rules to be followed in 

 thinning are hard to give. Much depends on the general 

 thrift of the tree, and, as in pruning, the grower must 

 learn much by experience. If we thin to encourage an- 

 nual bearing, it will be seen that all the fruit must be re- 

 moved from some of the spurs, and, at the same time, the 

 number of fruits remaining must be reduced to such an 

 extent that the tree is not overburdened. Some persons 

 thin to leave the apples at given distances apart, but a rule 

 fixing a certain space between the fruits will not hold good 

 in all cases. If we were always sure the tree had been 

 properly pruned, we might be able to give a satisfactory 

 rule to be followed, leaving the fruits at so many inches 

 apart. 



A plan the writers have tried and found to be very 

 satisfactory is so to thin as to leave a certain number of 

 boxes of fruit on the tree. Suppose you decide that the 

 tree should produce ten boxes of fancy fruit. A fairly 

 uniform grade of apples ranging from 2^ to 3 inches 

 in diameter will pack about 150 to the box, and by 

 thinning two or three trees and leaving the 1500 apples, 

 actually counting them or estimating them as closely 

 as possible, one learns what a tree properly thinned 

 should look like. With these trees as a model, it is sur- 

 prising how close one can come to leaving just the right 

 number. We think it is possible, by careful work, to come 

 within a box of the ideal. But knowing how much the 

 tree should produce is where the experience counts. 



Not many varieties of apple will require much thinning 



