CEOPPING. 
55 
But being too tbickly arranged in clusters to allow of this, and being 
also faj: too numerous for the resources of the tree, the result is a host 
of small apples little superior in size to crabs, instead of handsome, 
full-sized samples. The tree can neither furnish area enough nor 
strength sufficient for so many apples, hence the whole are of necessity 
dwarfed. Neither does the evil end here. An overcrop one year exhausts 
the strength of the tree and leaves no residuum of fruit-bearing force 
for the next. Hence seasons of scarcity alternate with seasons of plenty 
and a heavy crop is, as a rule, succeeded by one or more years of scant 
supplies. By judicious thinning we do much, notwithstanding our 
capricious climate, to obtain the most useful desideratum of households, 
an annual crop. The fruit is also much finer when the crop is thinned; 
and, weight being equal, fine fruit is far more profitable to eat or cook 
than small. The percentage of rind and waste inside is so much less 
in fine fruit. Besides, large fruit are so much more handsome in appear¬ 
ance and easier to use and prepare for use than small. But weight 
as well as size must be taken into account, otherwise it would be easy 
to overcrop apple trees with large fruit. The weight of these is, in fact, 
very deceptive, and ten large fruits will often be found to have as 
great, or even a greater, weight than a hundred smaller ones, though 
the latter make by far the greater show. The judicious thinner will 
apportion the load to the size of the trees. The tree started with a load 
' far beyond its strength often drops them all before any reach maturity. 
Few things are more trying than having the ground strewn with useless 
apples throughout the season. This continual dropping of small and 
quite useless fruit is simply Nature’s way of thinning. She sacrifices a 
crop to save the tree. The cultivator, by thinning his fruit in time and to 
sufficient extent, would have saved both. 
II—Swelling. 
Properly thinned, it may be thought that apples would swell without 
further trouble, still they may be assisted much in this important matter. 
The trees should be well fed and carefully watered, if needful, during 
the swelling period. The difference in the sizes of apples in different 
localities is mainly a matter of scarce or plentiful supplies. Allow the 
roots of apples once to become dry during the swelling of the crop, 
and the fruit will be the smaller in consequence. Attention to water 
is most important in the case of small trees. Large orchard or other 
trees have their roots running deep and wide. Hence, if one part of 
their root run is dry, another is likely to be sufficiently moist to supply 
