436 SUCCESSFUL FARMING 



Thinning is steadily gaining popularity in the East, mainly because it 

 tends to produce larger, finer specimens, to make the trees more hardy and 

 to establish regular annual bearing. Even the Baldwin apple, perhaps the 

 most notorious biennial cropper, has been made to produce profitable 

 crops fifteen out of seventeen consecutive years. 



Spraying has now become so general that no one thinks of planting 

 fruit without counting upon it. The first point to remember is that it must 

 be done with discrimination; for a plant disease cannot be combated with 

 an insecticide nor vice versa. Second, spraying for plant diseases must be 

 preventive; no remedy is known for diseases which have gained entrance 

 to the plant tissues. Third, sprays for insects must be suited to the kind of 

 insects. Those that bite off and swallow pieces of plant. tissue must be 

 poisoned internally, and those that merely suck the juice from the plant 

 killed by some substance which chokes, burns or otherwise destroys them 

 through their skins. Experiment station literature is rich in information 

 on methods of control. 



Harvesting and Marketing are rapidly becoming more businesslike. 

 Growers are recognizing the advantages from grading their fruit and selling 

 each grade for what it is. They are also learning that the laws which specify 

 standard sizes for packages are steps in the right direction, so are adopting 

 the new standards with profit to themselves and their communities. 



The Value and Importance of the Home Fruit Garden to the general 

 farmer lies mainly in the variety of pleasures as well as in the addition to 

 the diet supplied. Such a plantation should contain all kinds of fruits so 

 the table may be supplied from the time strawberries first ripen till the 

 last winter apples are used the following year when strawberries come in 

 again. 



Two or three rows of strawberries one hundred feet long, one each of 

 black, red and purple raspberries, one of dewberries, and one or two of 

 blackberries or loganberries should supply an average sized family through- 

 out the year with fresh and canned fruit, jelly, jam and preserves. Twenty- 

 five plants each of gooseberries and currants should suffice. By choosing 

 early and late maturing grape varieties, such a family should be able to 

 eat the product of twenty or thirty vines, perhaps more. A dozen or a 

 score of plum, peach and cherry trees, early and late, as many each of 

 dwarf and standard pears, perhaps half a dozen quinces, and forty or fifty 

 apples trees beginning with a few summer apples, continuing through fall 

 varieties and ending with at least half or perhaps two-thirds of the trees 

 of varieties that reach their best between Christmas and May Day will 

 supply the needs of the average family. 



Quality First for the Home. — In all cases the choice of varieties for the 

 home should fall on fruits of best quality, either for dessert, for cooking or 

 preserving. For local markets fewer varieties, preferably the best known 

 kinds of the section, should be given preference. Never choose for business 

 purposes varieties that have not been fully tested locally, no matter how 



