Most fruit trees "set” more of a crop than they ought to be allowed to mature. June "thinning" takes care of this and actually results in a better harvest ol liner specimens 
June Thinning for Later Winning j r mattern 
REDUCING THE PRESENT SET TO ENSURE LARGER SPECIMENS AND TO CONSERVE THE STRENGTH OF THE TREE 
A LONG in June, when the apples 
/\ are as big as hickoiy nuts and 
I peaches are as big as lima beans or 
iarger, you ought to take off the trees 
all damaged fruit and all surplus that the 
trees should not mature. Apples, quinces 
and pears should not grow closer than six to 
ten inches of each other. Peaches should be 
no nearer than four to six inches. Separate 
the fruits by a distance equal to about three 
times their diameter when ripe. 1 his applies 
to cherries, plums and practically all other 
fruit. If they are closer than this the fruits 
will not develop to the size and color they 
ought to, but when thinned to this distance 
the trees will bear the maximum quality of 
fruit and at the same time will yield the maxi- 
mum quantity. Don’t forget to take off the 
inferior bunches of grapes. Always use a pair 
of sharp shears or scissors for the work. If 
you pull off the fruits you will injure next 
year’s fruit buds. Note that fall bearing 
strawberries must have their blossoms clipped 
during May, June and July if they are to 
yield fully later on. 
The removal of blossoms from your fruit 
trees and plants sometimes is advisable, but 
it is not nearly so vital as some authorities 
would have us believe. I know that fruit 
trees often form their bearing habits to a cer- 
tain extent while they are young. If you 
make them bear when they are four and five 
years old (apple, pear, cherry etc.) they will 
continue to bear regularly. If they do not 
bear when they are of this' age they may bear 
lightly all their lives. So if your four-year 
apple and pear trees produce a good bloom, let 
it remain on or cut away only part of it. It 
will do no four-year tree any harm to mature 
from twenty to forty apples, particularly 
if it is making vigorous growth. Peach trees 
should yield a good heavy crop when they are 
three years old, and three-year cherry trees 
should have some fruits. Take off some of the 
blossoms of these young trees, but not all. 
PLANS FOR IRRIGATION 
In your garden you can do many things 
that are impracticable in a big orchard, and 
to water your plants systematically in very 
dry weather is one of them. Often when it 
does not rain for a long period during May and 
June your fruit garden will get very thirsty 
in spite of all your efforts at moisture conserva- 
tion. The simplest means you have of irri- 
gating your garden is to use the ordinary 
hose. As an extention of this make shallow 
ditches four feet from the trees and plants, 
and run water down these twice a week for a 
few hours. 
Other ways of accomplishing the watering 
are to have a system of pipes six to eight feet 
in the air and punctured with needle holes. 
Or the pipes may be within a foot of the 
ground. Twenty or thirty dollars will equip 
a quarter acre garden with such pipes. 1 hey 
produce a very effective irrigation system. 
Another good way is to plan the irrigation 
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when you plan your underdrains, and lay the 
tile so that you can close up the mouth of your 
drains and then run them full of water. Phis 
will soak the subsoil full of moisture whenever 
you want it to be wet. 
MAKING GOOD OUT OF BAD 
Should you have wrong varieties planted 
in your fruit garden you easily can change the 
trees that you have to the kind that you 
would like to have by budding. Summer 
budding is a much superior method to graft- 
ing, for your garden purposes. Get the 
budding wood from bearing trees if possible, 
an hour or two before you want to use it. 
You can get it several days before, however, 
if you keep it on ice till you do the budding. 
Insert a dozen or two buds in the top of each 
tree, at proper points. If you tie the buds 
with red yarn you can find them again easily. 
Do the necessary pruning and trimming around 
them the next summer. Budding also is a 
good way of providing the necessary cross 
pollination if you do not have it. Bud one 
or two limbs in each half dozen trees with the 
proper different varieties. 
When trees persist in leaning the wrong 
way, set a stake and tie the tree back into 
proper position with a strip of cloth. In May 
or June you will want to make trellises for 
your grapes, blackberries and dewberries, or 
to tie them up to the fence. Be sure that the 
label wires are all off your trees and plants. 
If you have planted an extensive garden, and 
