The Canadian Horticulturist. 



303 



THINNING FRUIT. 



HE Horticultural editor of the Coutitry Gentlemen, appears to 

 have been making some experiments in thinning fruit, and is con- 

 vinced that it is of extreme importance. Most fruit growers are 

 too hurried to spend the time needed, but, perhaps, no investment 

 would pay better. Figures 52 A and 52B, are drawings which he 

 gives, the former showing the average peach taken from one side of a peach tree 

 which had not been thinned, and where the fruit was very crowded ; the latter, 

 one growing on the side which had been frequently and well thinned. Both 

 illustrations show the fruit two-thirds the actual diameter, the smaller specimens 

 averaging i y^ inches in diameter, and the larger 2 y^ inches. He emphasizes an 

 important point, not often noted in speaking of the advantages of thinning, viz.: 

 the difference in flavor, which is still more worthy of consideration than the size. 

 The objection given to thinning fruit is the quantity wasted, but strange to say. 

 the quantity of fruit harvested from the 

 half of the tree that was thinned until the 

 fruit was left three or four inches apart, 

 was equal to that from the half on which 

 the fruit remained in a very crowded state. 

 Mr. J. H. Hale, of Massachusetts, thin- 

 ned his young crop early in July, when 

 the fruit was only about three-quarters of 

 an inch in diameter. He did the work 

 my hand, leaving none nearer than four 

 inches, and the larger varieties farther 

 apart. To do this required four out of every 

 five. The trees so treated yielded the same 

 number of baskets as those not thinned, 

 but the fruit was so improved as to size and 

 quality as to sell for more than double the 

 price. The labor of this is no small under- 

 taking, and this is what deters so many of 

 us from doing it in a systematic manner. 

 Mr. Hale found that every dollar paid 

 out for this work, returned to him five in 



direct profit. 



Fig. 52. 



Fio. r)2.— A. 



If we were about selecting a dozen kinds of grapes for what is usually desig- 

 nated an amateurs vineyard, we should include the following : Brighton, Dela- 

 ware, Moore's Early, Vergennes, Worden, Jefferson, El Dorado, Elvira, Empire 

 State, Hayes and Ulster.— i?. N. Y. ' 



