74 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



March, 1909 



Damaged by mice when the tree was young. 

 Mounding young trees with soil during the winter 

 prevents this. The twisted trunk is caused by wet 

 soil 



vantage in scraping the trunks. Old, 

 neglected trees, with trunks covered with 

 lichens and rough bark, will be benefited by 

 a vigorous scratching. Rough bark serves as 

 a hiding place for insects, especially for the 

 codling moth; lichens on the bark may 

 smother it to a very slight extent, but they 

 make the trees look neglected. An old hoe 

 answers very well for scraping, which may be 

 done at any time of the year. Trees sprayed 

 regularly with a fungicide are not likely to 

 have either old rough bark or lichens. 



Whitewashing, scraping, and slitting the 

 trunks of trees all serve the same purpose; 

 enabling the bark to expand when it has be- 



come hard. The bark of trees that have been 

 growing slowly, from neglect or other causes, 

 is apt to become rigid, or "set." If these 

 trees are stimulated into vigorous growth 

 as would follow the ploughing up of an old 

 sod orchard, the bark may not expand fast 

 enough to meet the new energies of the tree; it 

 is thus said to be bark-bound. The bark of 

 such trees may be softened by washing it 

 in early spring with whitewash, lye, soap- 

 suds; or the way may be opened for the 

 growth of new bark by making several long 

 slits with a knife up and down the trunk and 

 main limbs, the knife penetrating only to 

 the wood. These slits expand and fill in with 

 new growth. Washing is preferable to slit- 

 ting, since it does not leave a wound through 

 which diseases or borers might effect an en- 

 trance. The wash may be put on' -with a 

 scrubbing brush or old broom. Since a 

 whitewashed tree is obtrusively conspicuous, 

 lye or soda washing is usually preferable. 

 Spraying the trunks with Bordeaux or the 

 lime-sulphur spray answers the same purpose. 



THINNING THE FRUIT 



Where quality ideals in fruit growing are 

 dominant, as they should be in the fruit 

 garden, thinning the fruit is nearly or quite 

 as essential as spraying. Some varieties 

 habitually overload every year, so that the 

 fruit becomes smaller and poorer as the tree 

 gets older and weaker. Some varieties have 

 the reputation of "bearing themselves to 

 death " in a few years if unmolested. Cer- 

 tain varieties of apples, especially, have the 

 habit of bearing full crops only in alternate 

 years. The reason for this is mainly that 

 the trees bear so heavy a crop one season that 

 they cannot develop strong fruit buds at the 

 same time, and so prepare a crop for the next 

 season. The main reason for thinning the 

 fruit, therefore, is to husband the strength of 

 the tree so that it may bear annually for many 

 years. This applies with greatest force to the 



fruits that most commonly overload, as 

 peaches, plums, and apples. 



The stone fruits, especially peaches, apri- 

 cots, and Japanese plums, are most bene- 

 fited by thinning. This is mainly because 

 these fruits more commonly overbear than 

 the pome-fruits — apples, pears and quinces 

 — producing more blossoms in proportion to 

 their bearing surface and do not have the 

 self-thinning device of the apple and the 

 pear — the centrifugal opening of the blos- 

 soms in a cluster. 



Another advantage of thinning, especially 

 from the home fruit grower's point of view, 

 is an increase in the size of the fruit and a 

 diminution of injury from some insects and 

 diseases. Naturally enough, if half or two- 

 thirds of the crop is removed, the remainder 

 will have a better chance to grow. The 

 increase in size is most marked in those 

 varieties that naturally bear large fruits under 

 favorable circumstances, as Bradshaw and 

 Yellow Egg plum, Bartlett pear, and Globe 

 peach. Varieties that naturally bear small 

 fruits, as the Damson plums, are usually not 

 benefited so much by thinning; but some 

 small varieties, as Seckel pear, are consider- 

 ably increased in size by thinning. Some 

 sorts respond to thinning by increased size, 

 and some do not; but even if not, the 

 other benefits may be sufficient to justify the 

 practice. 



The diminution of injury from insects 

 and diseases by thinning is quite noticeable. 

 This is brought about in two ways: If the 

 fruits are thinned, so that they do not touch 



Branches of trees may be broken by the weight of fruit. Thinning the fruit early in the season would 

 have prevented this. Let none remain closer than four inches apart 



Removing diseased, wormy and imperfect fruits 

 saves the vitality of the tree. Apples, pears, plums 

 and peaches need thinning 



each other, the various fruit rots (especially 

 the brown rot of plums, cherries, and 

 peaches) do not as readily pass from one 

 fruit to another; and the wormy, diseased, 

 and curculio-slung fruits are largely re- 

 moved in thinning. I know several good 

 gardeners who are convinced that it pays 

 them to thin apples for the sake of lessened 

 injury from codling moth and scab, if for 

 no other reason. 



Of these three benefits of thinning — sav- 

 ing the strength of the tree, increasing the 

 size of the fruit, and lessening injury from 

 insects and diseases, the first is always 

 gained, the second frequently, and the third 

 sometimes. 



