The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1906-05-15
Orchard Problems
Thinninu Fruit.

INNING Fruit.
The man who expects to make sue
cess of fruit growing must make ur
his mind that thinning his fruit is
absolutely essential to success. This
is somewhat appalling to the beginner
for the task will appear much more
formidable than it really is. 1t may
cost kuite a sum to thin the fruit on
fair sized fruit ranch, but the grow
er may rest assured that his fruit will
sell for enough more to pay for the
thinning and leave large sum to his
credit besides. The writer from ex
perience believes that for every dollar
spent in thinning fruit five extra dol
lars will come back with it.
But to thin successfully the grower
must know when and how to thin his
fruit. Some varieties of fruit do no,
need thinning, such as all berries
cherries and most of prunes. Some va
rieties of plums must be thinned OF
they will not be salable. Peaches, ap-
pies and pears are the fruits that need
the most careful attention in the mat
ter of thinning.
In many cases, if peaches are moi
properly thinned, there will be no sale
for them. The trade demands a large
peach. Little peaches, such as many
of our seedlings, are very fine in quail
ity but they will not bring enough IN
the market to pay expenses. This is
not guess work with the writer but Is
based on experience. 1t must always
be borne in mind that peaches sci
fruit buds profusely. AS a rule there
are ten more buds on peach tree than
there ought to be peaches. Some OF
these buds may be killed by frost and
still may have too many. Sometimes
peaches self thin. This will be on
old trees that are somewhat enfeebl-
ed. The writer once had made arrang
ments to begin thinning an old peach
orchard on a certain date. A day or
two before the time for beginning he
passed through the orchard in ques
ton and noticing that the young
peaches which were twice the size OF
hulled peas, were dropping. So ou1
work of thinning was deferred and
was never done-the peaches thinned
Themselves AS the orchard contained
over a thousand trees the cost OF
thinning would have amounted to quite
sum- 1t is best to wait, both in the
case of peaches and apples, till the
dropping season is past. Peaches
should be as large as the end of
mans thumb before the thinning be
gins.
But when the time to thin has ar
rived, how should it be done? First
it may be stated that it must be done
| by hand No knocking off the peaches
with a stick should be tolerated. Some
| thinning may be done with the prun
ing shear. By cutting off part of each
small limb containing the peaches the
result is about the same as when WE
leave the limbs untouched and thin by
hand.
The common practice is to give thu
thinners a rule to go by, such as thin
ming to six or eight inches apart on the
| limbs. This cannot be an inf1exibl'
rule. There may be two peaches OF
| small limb three or four inche:
apart. In such a case leave both. The
rule Of distance apart does not apply
to peaches on different limbs. 1t may
be that a peach is quite close to an
other one but on a different limb II
that case leave them both. Again
there may be no peaches on one par
of the tree but are quite thick on an
other part. In such cases no thinning
need be done. A peach tree can ma
ture and bring to a good size certain
amount of peaches, whether they art
left all over the tree about six OIL
eight inches apart or are somewha
clustered in the top or on one side
If peach trees are low headed the worl
of thinning can be done mostly from
the ground.
When we come to the question o.