Thinning the Apple 245 



than from corresponding unthinned trees. Where the fruit set 

 sparsely before it was thinned, the thinning had no appreciable 

 influence on its color. 



Size. — Whenever the trees bore well, thinning had the effect of 

 increasing the size of the fruit. This occurred with Baldwin and 

 Hubbardston more often than with Greening, which may be ac- 

 cotmted for by the fact that the Greening trees did not carry any 

 crops so heavy as the heaviest crops of Hubbardston and of Baldwin. 



Market value. — The intrinsic value of the apples from the 

 consumer's standpoint was generally increased by thinning, the 

 thinned fruit being usually superior in size, color and general quahty. 

 The thinned fruit, as a rule, was better adapted than the unthinned 

 for making fancy grades, for marketing in boxes, etc. Where such 

 ways of marketing can be advantageously used, the thinned fruit 

 should bring an increase in price, corresponding to its superiority 

 in real value. But where it must be put upon the ordinary market 

 in barrels there is less chance for the thinned fruit to seU at sufficient 

 advance over the unthinned to pay for thinning, especially if the 

 thinned fruit cannot be furnished in large quantities. 



Amount and regularity of fruit-production. — In these experi- 

 ments the practice of thinning the fruit did not appear to cause any 

 material change either in the amount or the regularity of fruit- 

 production. 



Methods of thinning. — No exact rule for thinning apples should 

 be laid down. The requirements vary with the different individual 

 trees and with the same tree in different seasons. The amount of 

 thinning should be suited to the conditions as shown by the age and 

 condition of the tree, by the amount of fruit which has set, and by 

 the distribution of the fruit on the tree. In thinning apples, all 

 wormy and otherwise inferior specimens should first be removed 

 and no more than one fruit from each cluster should be allowed to 

 remain. After this is done, if there is a full set of fruit, greater im- 

 provement in the grade may be expected from thinning to 6 inches 

 than to 4 inches apart. 



Does it pay to thin apples? — The reply of Mr. Wilson, a practical 

 fruit-grower, in whose orchard these tests were made, is in effect 

 that where there is a general crop of apples, the set full, the chance 

 for small apples great and widespread, it would pay to thin enough 

 to insure good-sized fruit; otherwise not, except to protect the tree. 



Methods of removing the fruit. — No way of jarring or raking 



