173 



two before these buds actually bear fruit. It thus follows that if 

 a tree is allowed to overbear, it is hardly expected that it will also 

 nourish as it should do the ensuing season's crop of blossom buds, 

 and these being feeble and wanting in vigour and strength will, it is 

 more than likely, in the proper time fail to set and perfect their 

 fruit. Occasional heavy crops, therefore, more especially on trees 

 growing in land of only moderate fertility, thus accounts for the 

 fact that many trees which are allowed to grow and bear at their 

 own sweet will are seen to carry prodigious crops one season and to 

 be shy bearers the season after. 



Overbearing not only enfeebles the coming season's buds, but it 

 also severely disturbs the constitution of most trees. More energy 

 is spent by them in perfecting the embryo, which is the essential 

 part of the plant's seed or kernel, than is required in elaborating 

 the pulp, and as much, if not more, valuable mineral constituents 

 are abstracted from the soil in order to produce the seed as it does 

 to manufacture the flesh part of the crop. Thinning, therefore, by 

 reducing the number of matured seeds, considerably lessens the 

 drain on the vitality of the plant and of the soil. Thinning, some 

 argue, is a costly operation, and necessitates in some cases the ex- 

 penditure of 6d. to 2s. a tree in labour spent on that operation alone, 

 and in some cases, when old and vigorous trees have to be carefully 

 gone over, it may cost as much as Is. to 3s. for so doing. It should 

 be considered, on the other hand, that the fruit must be picked 

 sooner or later, and that as far as actual cost goes, it does not matter 

 whether this amount is spent before the seeds form or when the 

 fruit is ripe and ready for market. 



The extra cost of picking, therefore, need not be entertained, 

 as it is practically the same, whether part of the crop is picked 

 when thinning and part at the time the fruit ripens, or whether 

 the whole crop is picked at the one time. But, apart from the 

 consideration of more even crops in a succession of seasons, 

 thinning also influences to a marked degree the season's crop. 

 Although less in number, fruit from a thinned tree equals in 

 weight, and certainly surpasses, as regards size and market value, 

 fruit from a like tree left unthinned. 



A few figures will demonstrate that the lesser number of 

 fruit from a tree that has been thinned equals or even surpasses 

 in volume the crops from an overloaded tree that has not been 

 thinned.* 



Two peaches measure respectively If inches and 3 inches in 

 diameter ; some might imagine that the second is twice the size of 

 the first, in reality it is eight times as voluminous, or, in other words, 

 it would take eight times the number of If -inch fruit to fill a bushel 

 case which would hold a given number of three-inch peaches, for 

 the cube of 1'5 is 3'375, whereas the cube of 3 is 27, or eight 

 times as much. In the same way, two apples measure 2 inches 



