18 Drrector’s Report OF THE 
of profit from thinning fruit in orchards which are well cared for 
is to be looked for chiefly in preventing the breaking of over- 
loaded limbs and in the increased market value of the fruit of the 
current season. 
Thinning, to be most effective, should be done early in the 
ceason — at the time Baldwins and Greenings are from three- 
fourths of an inch to an inch in diameter. In New York State it 
should be completed in June. 
Thinning stone fruits Experiments in thinning apricots, 
plums and peaches have been in progress three seasons. With these 
fruits as with apples the effect of thinning is not always as pro- 
nounced the following year as had been expected. In some cases 
there appeared to be real permanent advantage and an increased 
yield in succeeding seasons, and again the effect, if any, on the 
crop of the following year, was in some cases obscured by causes 
not understood and no advantage from the previous year’s thin- 
ning of the fruit could be seen. In some cases trees which were 
heavily loaded and not thinned gave even greater yields the fol- 
lowing season than were obtained from corresponding trees on 
which the fruit had been severely thinned. 
Early and severe thinning in general increased the percentage 
of the higher grades of fruit. Where the fruit grower can obtain 
correspondingly better prices for fancy fruit the thinning may 
doubtless be made profitable with selected varieties of peaches 
and apricots and in some cases with plums also. 
Chemical analyses of fruits which were picked at different 
stages were made in the chemical department which showed that 
the amount of potash in the fruit of one variety of peach in- 
creased 493 per ct. from June 24 to July 21. The nitrogen in- 
creased 240 per ct. and the phosphoric acid 327 per ct. in the 
same period. The amount of potash in the fruit of a certain 
variety of plum increased in the same period 296 per ct., the 
nitrogen 222 per ct. and the phosphoric acid 156 per ct. This 
indicates how rapidly the fruits take up plant food in the very 
