Points on Proper Thinning. 137 
as irrational if it be applied without regard to the other condi- 
tions of the tree. If, however, a rule must be had, let it be this, 
that the distance between the fruit shall be two and one-half 
times the diameter desired in the fruit. This would fix an arbi- 
trary distance, then, of four to six inches for apricots and six to 
eight inches for peaches—with other fruits according to their 
respective sizes, and the late varietics with greater distance 
than early. 
Any such standard, however, considers only the size of che 
fruit, not the strength of the tree, and therefore stops short of 
one of the important ends of thinning, to conserve the strength 
of the tree for next season’s fruiting. Fruits might be thus 
spaced and still the tree be overladen, because it may be carrying 
too many bearing shoots. Calculate the burden of the tree in 
this way, for instance: Peaches which weigh three to the pound 
are of fair marketable size; sixty such peaches will fill an ordi- 
nary peach-box of twenty pounds; ten to twelve such boxes is 
fruit enough for a good bearing tree six to ten years of age. 
Now count the little peaches you have left on one main branch 
and its laterals, which ought to be about one-tenth of the tree, 
and thin down to about sixty. By doing a few trees in this way 
and thinking of the relation of the bearing wood to the fruit, 
one will soon get a conception of the proper degree of thinning, 
and proceed to realize it as rapidly as the fingers can fly along 
the branch. 
It is seldom desirable to divide doubles in peaches; pull both 
off or leave both on, as they may be needed or not to make the 
load of the tree. Clusters of apples or pears should often be re- 
duced to singles, except where size is apt to be too great. 
All kinds of fruits are clearly subject to increase of size by 
thinning, but it is with only the larger fruits that the practise 
prevails at present. The dividing line seems to lie upon the 
prune. With this fruit thinning is only done by pruning the tree 
for the reduction of the number of bearing branches, while with 
some shipping plums hand thinning is practised. Growers are 
still striving for a prune naturally of larger size rather than to 
have recourse to thinning. 
The practise of thinning partially at first, trusting to further 
removal of fruit later if too much of it survives the natural drop 
and various accidents, is followed by some growers, but the rule 
is to finish at one operation. 
Io 
