The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-05-15

live on apples. But apples are bene
fetal aside from their nutritive value
My advice has been asked about set
ting out pear orchards. A good Bartlett
pear orchard is a valuable piece oil
property. | would like to set out al
least ten acres of Bartlett pear trees
but | am afraid to do it. In some sec
tions of our country pear blight has
ruined the pear business. The disease
is spreading and | look for it to catch
us in the Yakima valley almost any
time. This fear gives me pause. I an
afraid that about the time my peal
orchard is ready to turn money into
my pockets, the blight will come along
and ruin my prospects. Of course III
all lines of business we must take
some chances, but l fear in this case
the chances are too great.
The up-to-date fruit grower knows
that he must thin his fruit This mat
ter is under discussion but not among
the fruit growers of the Pacific north
west. We would Just as soon think oil
discussing the ACCESSIBILITY of spray
ing for the codling moth or the Sar
Jose scale. That some old farmer who
is still voting for Jackson may doubt
the benefits of thinning apples, peach
es and pears, there is no doubt, but the
man who keeps up with the process
sion never has any doubt about the
matter When once thinning is tried
the benefits become so apparent thai
all doubt vanishes. But after the ne
cessity for thinning is learned still
there are some questions that need tt
be studied. Under the headings OF
what. when, and how, we may treat
these questions.
All kinds of fruit do not need thin
ming. We never thin cherries If we
were raising the large cherries like
the Bing, Lambert and Royal Ann to
be shipped, we might find it an ad
vantage to thin them. We raise each
of these on limited scale and have
never tried thinning them. We do mol
believe it would pay us to thin the
MAY Duke, the Late Duke, the Early
Richmond, the Olivet, the English Nor
lilo, the Wragg, the Black Republican
and the Governor Wood, all of which
we raise. We never thin prunes, but
SOIlG MINIS VI piuliio NC Ci1ihiANo
in order to be profitable. We thin our
peach plums, the Bradshaw, the Wash
ington, the Hungarian prune, the
RENE Claude, the Tenant, the Golden
Drop and the Japan plums, the Sat
suma, Abundance and the Burbanks
Peaches of all kinds need thinning; sc
do apricots and nectarines Of course
apples and pears need thinning. Some
years the peaches do not need thin
ning-the frost may save us that WORK
Last year all our old peach trees thin
ned themselves. This was something
we never had occur before. Why they
acted in this way we cannot say. We
tried to determine the cause of this
dropping but failed. At one time we
thought the whole crop would go but
finally the dropping ceased and there
were just about enough left OF course
it goes without saying that thinning
should not be practiced where 1t Ii
not needed. Apples sometimes thin
themselves. Some varieties are more
apt to do this than others. The Nam
moth Black Twig nearly always thins
itself and sometimes too much.
When to thin Is a question OF con
siderable importance. We were about
to begin thinning 1900 peach trees ir
our old orchard last year, but NOTICING