Thinning of the Winesap. 9 
enough with the pruning shears in the winter time, thereby doing 
away with the necessity of thinning by hand in the summer. These 
people forget that the plant food that goes to make and mature the 
apple is manufactured by the leaves and not by the roots of the tree. 
Keep a tree defoliated in the summer for any length of time and you 
will kill it. It is not best to obtain all of the leaf surface possible, as 
would be the case with an unpruned tree, for this would mean wood 
growth at the expense of fruit, and a greater amount of hand thin¬ 
ning. There would also be too much shade for the fruit and a poor 
color would be the result. A well balanced and well cared for tree, 
bearing a good crop of uniform sized apples every year will retain 
its vigor, while a tree allowed to bear an enormous crop one year 
and none the next may suffer the consequences of over production. 
Securing Annual Crops Instead of Alternate. —A tree will pro¬ 
duce quantity at the expense of quality, and at the same time utilize 
plant food that should be used in making the fruit buds for the 
next year’s bloom. The law of nature is to reproduce its kind and 
it tends to do it even at the exuense of the welfare of the tree. An¬ 
nual thinning tends to throw a tree into annual bearing. When a 
tree has been in the habit of bearing alternate crops, it may take 
some time to induce it to bear every vear by thinning. It has been 
demonstrated in the orchard where this experiment was carried on 
that by annual thinning the Jonathan can be made to bloom well 
every year. 
Fruit of Maximum Size, Color and Quality. —The total av¬ 
erages. as given in the table found in the different grades, illustrates 
the points of size and color, for apples have to be of a certain size 
and a certain color to be packed in the first two grades. The fol¬ 
lowing table illustrates the comparative values of the different 
grades. The culls were selling at the cannery and evaporator at $7 
per ton, or the equal of $0,175 per fifty-pound box. 
Ex. F. Boxes 
at $1.75 
Ex. C. Boxes 
at $1.50 
Stand. Boxes 
at $0 85 
Cull Boxes 
at $0,J75 
Cost of 
Thinning - 
Thinned _ 
5.34-59.35 
3.07-54.61 
3.2 -52.72 
1.11-50.19 
50.64 
Unthinned_ 
2.5 -54.38 
1 - 51.50 
9 -57.65 
5.08=50.89 
Thinned _ 
Gain =54.97 
Gain-53.11 
Loss-54.93 
Eoss-50.70 
Eoss=50.64 
$8 08—$6 23*51.85, total gain per tree. 
When trees are set 16x32 feet, there are 85 to the acre. A 
gain of $1.85 per tree would make a total gain of $157.25 to the 
acre. 
