Charlevoix county herald., 1904-07-09
Thinning of Peaches

The thinning of peaches is as yet
)racticed by but few peach growers,
yet among the ones that do thin are
he most successful peach growers in
he United States. Among these we
might mention ROLAND Morrill, OF
Michigan and ]. II. Hale of Georgia.
Both have made fortunes out Of peach
growing, and national regulations as
well. Mr.. Morrill, says that the work
pays enormously, and Mr.. Hale de-
clares that he could not succeed with
out this. One big grower in West Vir-
ginia says that he would no more
think OF growing peaches without
thinning them than he would think OF
getting along without cultivating the
ground under the trees. Thinning the
fruit gives the peaches better size,
better flavor and more color. The
flavor is improved in part by the large
amount of food each peach receives
and probably to some extent by the in
creased amount of sunlight falling on
each peach; for where peaches are
clustered together naturally there are
parts of them that are not able to
receive the amount OF sunshine de-
sired by the grower. The skillful thin
ners make the heaviest thinning or
the shaded part of the tree. This
leaves the greater part on the sunny
side Of the tree and Of course n great
err proportion of the peaches are thus
In the full glare of the sun.
The men that do the thinning soon
become very expert and leave no in
ferior or imperfect fruit on the tree.
The peaches are simply picked off and
allowed to fall to the ground, and this
makes the work easy. The limbs are
not all treated alike. The stocky, thick
limbs are able to bear and ripen a
greater number of peaches than the
long slender limbs.
The severest thinning is naturally
made near the base of the tree and on
the inside where the fruit would be
shaded by the foliage. The desire is
not only to reduce the amount of fruit
the tree carries, but also to so dis
tribute it on the tree that it will be in
the best position to get air and light.
The old rule that peaches were to be
| uniformly thinned to, say, a hand
breadth apart, has apparently been
| abandoned as being a crude method
that did not give the best results at
harvest time. The time to thin will
depend Of course on the locality. the
| earliness of the season and the variety
of peach being grown. In the North
it is not best to begin to thin before
the annual drop begins. This drop
occurs every year, partly from un-
known reasons. II the peaches are
thinned before this time it may be
that the number left on the trees af-
, ter that event will be less than the
tree should mature. Also the thin.
ming should not be done later than
the hardening of the pit. One reason
for the thinning is to relieve the tree
Of the necessity Of supplying mate
rial for the pits. When we compare
the density of the flesh of the peach
with the hardness of the pit we will
see that really very large part of
the substance in the fruit crop is in
the pits. The fruit should be thinned
before it reaches the size of a hickory
nut, and this is generally after the
drop, which in many states occurs in
June.
1t should be remembered that every
day the surplus fruit remains on the
tree plant food is being wasted. Dis
lance cuts some figure still in the
work of thinning. Then men that
want to raise peaches only for drying,
thin to, say, four inches apart. The
men that want q good market peach,
thin to six inches where distances are
held to at all; while the men that
want some very fine fruit for exhibit
ton purposes, thin to ten inches apart.