OF GARD ENING 
ere 
May. Frait will be poor that Year, i thin the next; 
becaufé the Tree will have been too much ex- 
hautted to furnifh then even a healthy. Bloom. 
Some who think themfelves careful Obfervers, 
remark that the bearing of Fruit-Trees is in al- 
ternate Years; that there is one full Year, and 
one fcanty. The Reafon is, that when the Trees 
are crowded with Fruit they will not properly thin 
them; confequently the Tree is exhaufted that 
Year, and is not able to produce a large Crop the 
hext : they fuppofe what is their own Neglect to be | 
the Courfe of Nature; and even in the favourable 
Year the Fruit is worth little. 
~ In thinning of Fruits the firft Thing to be | 
confidered is their Size: no Man would be fo idle 
as to count the Number of Peaches, for Inftance, 
that fhould be left to ripen, without Confideration 
of the Kind. The Nutmeg and the Newington 
are both Peaches, but the fame Vigour of Root, 
the fame Expanfe of Tree, and ‘hides Quantity of 
__Nourifhment, will ripen twenty of the Nutmeg 
Kind that will be needed for ten of the others. 
Next to this Article of Size in the Fruit, the 
Length of the Bearers on which they are plac’d 
-fhould be confider’d, and after this, the Condition 
of the Horizontals, from which thofe Bearers 
grow: laftly, the Quantity of Fruit there is 
in the whole upon the Bearers that ie from 
- one Horizontal : and fo of the reft. 
‘This is a Method of going regularly t to work, 
and this the Gardener ought exactly and carefully 
to practife in his laft Thinning of the Fruit, 
We fhall bring this to Practice by an Inftance : 
_ Suppofe a flrong 2 and healthy Tree, and i imagine it 
~ prun’d and drefs’d in a proper Manner. Upon a Ho- 
_ rizontal of a Yard long there will be in this Cafe, 
we will fay fix Branches : thefe being underftood to 
be of the common Length, will produce a great 
Number of Bloffoms ; and the avaritious Gar- 
- dener may, if thefe fet for Fruit ripen, as he will 
call it, have a great many Fruit upon them; but 
they will be il. flavour’d. If he would know 
— what Quantity will come to Perfection, let him | 
learn from our Experience, till he have confirm’ d 
it by Trials’ of his own.  ~ | ? 
In the firft Thinning he will have taken off all 
that erew evidently tote: and he is now to con- 
face” 1. Flow many to leave on’ for eres 
and, 2. Which thefe fhall be. 
Upon this Horizontal, of a Yard in Length, 
with its fix bearing Branches, ‘there may be left 
ef the common middle-fiz’d Peaches about fifteen. 
This will leave three Peaches on each of the three 
ftronger, ‘and two. on each of the three weaker of 
the Bearer d: : aie 
The careful Gardener will commonly be able 
to fee this Difference of ftronger and weaker 
Bearers in the common Run of Trees: but if 
there. be no fuch Difference, let him leave the 
Fruit at the fame Rate alternately, two on one 
Bearer, and three on another. Before he takes off 
the reft, let him fingle out thefe he is to leave, 
fele€ting the -moft promifing Fruit, and thofe 
_ sawhich ftand beft. 
*. ‘This then is to be the general Rule: fifteen 
Peaches or Ne¢tarines on fix Bearers, upon a Ho- 
S., 
and the little ones, as. the Nutmeg Kinds.: 
rizontal of a Yard, ypdheg, the Fruit of se 
middling Kind as to Size: and thefe will ripen 
perfectly: they will-haye the true high Flavour of 
their Kind; and the Tree will every. Year, with 
due Management, excepting for uncommon Acci- 
dents, produce and ripen the fame Number. 
How much this is better than to have one Year 
a Load of indifferent Fruit, and another none, let 
| any one judge. 
With Regard to the Peaches of cal Sizes and 
Kinds, the Rule is eafy: in Proportion‘ as the¥are 
larger, fewer mutt be left upon na — and, 
as they are {maller, more. 
The Difference between the middle Side’ of 
Peaches and. the: largeft is not very great, there 
| fore of thefe the Gardener may leave twelve upon 
| the. fix Bearers, that isy two on. each; but,’ on 
the other Hand, the Difference: is very great be- 
tween the common or middling,Size of Peaches 
Thefe 
not only require lefs Room, and. lefs Nourifhmént, 
| from their {mall Size, but they are fooner ripe and 
gather’d, and therefore they lefs exhauftthe ‘Tree, 
Of this Kind, five will in the common Con- 
dition of Trees ripen very well upon every Bearer ; 
that is, there may be thirty Peaches left upon the 
| Horizontal of a Yard in Length. If the Tree 
| be remarkably ftrong, there. may’ be alternately 
five and fix, or fix upon each Bearer left to ripen ; 
/and by the fame Rule, if the: Tree be. weaker, 
there fhould be only four and five alternately, or 
only four upon each. 
~The Proprietor of a Ganlbn will fee by this 
| Account, how very deficient the common Prattice 
is upon this Head. 
Thin your Wall-Fruit this Month, (9s their 
Director; and they do it their own Way: that is, 
they leave on twice or three Times as many as 
| the Tree can ripen: hence one half perifhes, and 
This I _ 
the . reft is watery and ill-flavour’d, 
have found by long Experience, that winet Fruit 
{tands too thick, the Sun Beams whi S would 
otherwife give them the true Flavour, oni; render 
them flabby : they begin to decay" before they are 
| ripe; and the beft of them eat like Fallings, 
Let the Gardener obferve that we have directed 
this Thinning to be done at twice, or oftener; 
and that a Week, ten Days, ora Fortnight, ac- 
cording to the Strength of the ‘Tree, pals between 
| thefe feveral Opatiton 
The Reafon is plain: if the full Number that 
| fet in a favourable Seafon, were left to take their 
firft ‘Growth tog gether, they would ‘all take that 
firftt Growth amifs ; for one would ftarve another : 
and, on the contrary, if the whole Number to be 
taken off, were pull’d away at once, the Number 
left on the Tree would be: foon reduced to much 
lefs than it need, by the accide ental falling of the 
others. 
I never ive that more than two- thirds of tl thofe 
left on after a common Thinning, come to, their 
Growth : tho’ the two-thirds in that Way is -al- 
ways much too large a Number. Accidents from 
Nature will deftroy fome, and Accidents in the. 
Thinning will occafion others to fall off after- 
wards, chi? they do not fhew it.at firft. 
‘There- 
431 
May. 
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