CULTIVATION. FERTILIZATION. THINNING 57 



fruits themselves are largely 

 water. And that brings us 

 to the important subject of 

 THINNING FRUITS. If 

 we can annually reduce the 

 number of seeds (or pits) 

 which a tree endeavors to 

 grow, we remove a great vital 

 drain upon the strength of PEACHES TOO THICK ON THIS 

 both tree and soil. We save EIGHTEEN-INCH BRANCH 

 fertilizer, and we save tree vitality. Incidentally, we 

 accomplish equally important secondary results. By 

 removing, say, one-half of the baby fruit on a tree, 

 the remainder is enabled to grow to larger and more 

 profitable size ; and next season the tree, not having 

 exhausted itself the previous year, is in proper con- 

 dition to bear another full crop. In brief, systematic 

 thinning increases the value of the crop, and helps 

 to insure full crops every year. 



The time to do the work is after the June drop is 

 about over and before the seeds or pits have hardened. 

 Often it is necessary to pull off, by hand, almost two- 

 thirds of the fruit on a heavily set tree ; yet, strange 

 as it may seem to those who have not tried it, the 

 remaining one-third, at pick- 

 ing time, will fill almost as 

 many bushels as the fruit of 

 a similar tree un thinned. 

 Which would be most profit- 

 able, ten bushels of "medi- 

 ums ' ' or eight or nine bushels 

 of ' ' extra large " ? It fre- 

 ' quently pays to hire help to 



SAME BRANCH PROPERLY , . , ' . . 



THINNED do the thinning. 



