42 FRUIT FARMING 



The next point which I think worth a trial on a 

 large scale is the thinning of fruit spurs on old trees. 

 I submit a fruiting branch of the old Yorkshire Apple, 

 the " Cockpit " (a free bearer, but too small for profit 

 here). When these trees bear, I have half the fruit 

 taken off, but although that makes the fruit finer I 

 am now thinning the spurs so that they may be larger 

 still, and I am persuaded that if half the spurs were 

 taken from our old orchard trees, which is easy work 

 with a tool like the one I am using (see page 46), we 

 should get much finer fruit, and these spurs if cut 

 about an inch from the stem, would in some cases 

 throw out other spurs, which in time would enable us 

 to prune out those left in the former cutting, and thus 

 we should have perpetual youth on the head of an 

 ancient body. Pears are most profuse in the way they 

 spur, and some kinds bear so freely that they are not 

 inaptly said to crop "like ropes of onions." In the 

 case of Plums it is the same. The " Diamond " would 

 bear more freely if half its spurs were taken out ; and 

 the " Victoria," under this treatment, would not be so 

 liable to break as it does from carrying such heavy 

 crops. "Jefferson" again is a mass of spurs; in fact, 

 even in winter, an expert can tell the names of 

 leafless trees by the form of the spurs, and the way 

 they set on the branches. 



In removing what I may term surplus spurs, those 

 found on the undersides of the branches are of little 

 value ; and if I say, negatively, that the pruner should 

 retain all spurs in the best positions, and remove the 

 rest, you will get an idea how to work. The Crittenden 

 or Cluster Damson is one which makes a mass of 

 thorny spurs; these require thinning, as, if left too 



