Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-29

.'Why, my boy,' exclaimed DR.. John, ''those
are the figs"
s.The fgs! They haven't had a sign of bios
II remember, remember cried Martin.
1.-THE book says the aOrescence IS inside OF the
fg." ;.
to the BOYS with little magnifying glass. True
enough, there were the myriads of tiny blossoms
clustered about the hollow center of the fruit.
A little further on they came to row OF per-
haps dozen and a half trees, heavily loaded
with green fruit, and SO surrounded with props
that they resembled the sacred banyan trees OF
India which send down roots and grow new
trunks from the tips OF their horizontal
branches.
What in the world Is TINS! demanded the
doctor.
..These are our apr1cots. Aren't we going to
have pile. though! You can't see some OF the
branches at all, the fruit is so clustered around
them
1T really seems as if We can't get enough
lin and busy couple of hours every morning,
and it. S getting hard to find room for the props.
Just see how those branches up above are bend
ing down. They'll break before tomorrow il
we don't prop them"
in sings" suggested DR.. John.
SIN sings? don't quite understand, sir"
Ned looked keenly at DR.. John, and saw that
he put up his hand and pulled his moustache to
.'Dr, John, what ought we to do?''
''Boys, did you never hea- of such thing as
thinning fruit?''
fOh, we don't want to do such thing as
that - protested Martin The papers say the
apricot crop is going to be very Light this year.
They're going to be our main crop, and we're
going to save every one.''
'Do people ever thin fruit, doctor?'' asked
Ned
s'WeIl, yes. they do,'' replied the doctor.
''In fact, it's quite the custom. Dnring this
month and next, thinning fruit will be the
chief occupation on almost every ranch through
out the county,
.'But the ideal" cried Martin, who could not
brook the thought of parting with any of his
cherished apricots before their time. Just
as if the trees didn't know best what they were
able to stand. Isn't Nature the best guide,
DR.. John?''
mature has had possession of this orchard
for about seven years, and you can see what
But you not alone in your feelings on the
subject of thinning, Martin. Mr.. Abbott tells 4
good story of q young Scotchman who came out
here last year, and whom he set to work thin
ming fruit in his orchard. The man worked
away fer time IN open disapproval. When he
had removed about third OF the fruit that 1t
was necessary to take off from one tree, he
stopped work and surveyed the tree and ground
beneath it. I've thrawn AVA a. tina guide
fruit i m Raun to- he said. with dignifed de-
cision, nd he walked off from the ranch and
was seen no more"
By tho middle of May the rains of the season
wers over and summer was upon them. The
temperature, whose average had been steadily
raised each month OF the year, attained really
genial warmth. On the hills all the sunny ex-
posures were brilliant with wild flowers, and in
shady gorges and on the north side of the hills
delicate ferns spread their beautiful tracery OF
green against the deeper emerald of moss and
the warm browns and yellows OF lichen hespat-
tered rocks. Lush grasses, on which the cattle
loved to feed, carpeted the openings between
the trees on the mountains and grew rank and
high over the little pasture on Home Ranch, as