244 The Principles of Fruit-growing 



is forcing the question. When choice fruit is to be grown, 

 the practice will be necessary if the set of fruit is heavy, 

 if some of it tends to grow in clusters, and particularly 



if fertihty and 

 moisture are not 

 well supplied. 

 Some varieties 

 tend to grow in 

 clusters, as the 

 Chenango (Fig. 

 90), and these 

 should always be 

 reduced to one 

 fruit (Fig. 91). 



Fig. 91. Only one apple should remain of the cluster. There have 



been no long-continued experiments in this country on 

 the thinning of apples. One of the standard investigations 

 is by the State Experiment Station at Geneva, New York, 

 under the direction of S. A. Beach. He reports as follows 

 (Bull. No. 239.): 



Tests are here reported on thinning apples in June and July 

 during a period of four years. Mature trees of Baldwin, Rhode 

 Island Greening and Hubbardston were included in the tests. 

 These trees stood in a good conunertial orchard. They were well 

 cared for and were all similarly treated except that some had their 

 fruit thinned while others did not. The thinning was usually done 

 when the fruit had grown to about 1}^ inches in diameter. Obser- 

 vations were made on the effect of thinning upon the color, size 

 and market value of the fruit and upon the amount and regularity 

 of fruit-production. Some data were obtained for a comparison of 

 different amounts of thinning, but the results are not regarded as 

 conclusive. 



Color. — When the trees were well filled with fruit, thinning, 

 generally improved the color. At harvest-time the various hues 

 were heightened and tended to be more brilliant on fruit from thinned 



