1 66 THE APPLE 



competition with a home-grown product. This means that to pro- 

 duce readily saleable fruit the orchardist must resort to thinning. 



Benefits from thinning. Some of the benefits that may be 

 derived from properly thinning the fruit are as follows : 



i. The color of the fruit in many cases is greatly improved. 

 It has been found that in heavily laden trees the color was some- 

 what increased, while in sparsely laden trees little or no appreciable 

 difference was. noticed. 



2. The size of the fruit is increased. Sometimes the number 

 of first-grade fruit on a tree that has been thinned is from 10 to 

 1 8 per cent greater than where thinning has not been practiced. 



3. There is more uniformity in the fruit, the natural result 

 of selection. 



4. The vitality of the tree is conserved, which has a tendency 

 to encourage annual bearing. Much of the so-called habit of 

 " alternate bearing " in apple trees is directly traceable to the fact 

 that they overbear one year, and recover from this overtax by bear- 

 ing a very light crop or none at all the following year. 



5 . The number of broken limbs in the orchard can be lessened, 

 thereby saving both time and money, and in some instances re- 

 ducing the cost of propping. 



Methods of thinning. The apples are removed by hand or by 

 shears, the consensus of opinion being that hand picking is better 

 or at least quicker. This is undoubtedly true when the variety to 

 be thinned has long stems or long fruit spurs, but varieties with 

 short fruit spurs cannot be so readily handled this way, and in such 

 cases small shears made especially for this purpose will be useful. 

 Whatever the method of thinning, care should be used not to break 

 or injure the fruit spurs. Few will be broken by the careful worker 

 if they are grasped firmly in one hand while the apples are removed 

 with the other. An upward and backward twist of the fruit will 

 loosen the stem from the spur without breaking the spur or dis- 

 turbing the remaining fruit. One or two apples are often removed 

 from a cluster in this way, leaving the remaining apple or apples 

 undisturbed. Careless workers who persist in pulling off the fruit 

 should not be tolerated. A light picking-ladder, from which the 

 entire bearing surface may be easily reached, will hasten the work 

 with the older trees. 



