The Julesburg grit-advocate. (Julesburg, Colo.) 1907-1972, 1909-03-19
COMPETITION FORCING GRoWERs
TO RAISE ONLY THE 0EsT
QUALITY.
HOW THE WORK IS DONE
RESULTS IN SETTER GRADE OF
FRUIT AND MORE REGULAR
SCANNING.

ist, Colorado Agricultural COllege.)
In fancy fruit growing, the necessity
for thinning will become more and
more apparent as the acreage devoted
TO orchards Increases and competition
becomes more keen. While the wis
dom OF thinning peaches Is no longer
doubted. the growers are not 30 will
ing to take up systematic work in thin
ming apples and pears. But the time
ID coming when the fruit grower will
be forced to conclude that 1t no longer
pays to grow poor fruit. Even now.
the years that the grower makes .
profit In shipping choice fruit. are the
exception rather than the rule. There
are but few localities where choice
fruit cannot he grown, and wherever
shipped such fruit must generally COM
pete with the 0me-grown product. On
tho other hand, localities where strict
tied, and composition In this class is
more impartial. The competition is
between localities which are probably
equally distant from the market, and
the one producing the best fruit is the
successful competitor.
To 4 certain extent, pruning is a
method of thinning, but 1t will not take
the place Of hand thinning entirely
The production Of fancier grade Of
fruit ID not the only benefit derived
from thinning; 1t encourages more reg
ular bearing; lessons the loss from the
breaking Of limbs. and gives the grow
or . chance to destroy insect infected
fruit and thus check the spread Of in
sects early in the season. The tree
that has been properly thinned should
produce q good crop Of fruit buds each
year. and II 1t has been properly
trained and thinned 1t will never need
. prop.
While many have observed that ap-
pie and pear trees are inclined to bear
alternate years. probably few under
stand the cause. Fruit spurs with
terminal fruit buds, rs those Of the ap-
pie and the pear, generally bear only
alternate years, and II the spurs are
all full Of fruit one year, the next
must be an "off.year," as we say. Not
only do the spurs fail to bear annually,
but II the tree IL overloaded, spurs
that produce bloom, even though they
fail to set fruit, may not be sufficiently
nourished to produce fruit buds for
the following season. II the tree bears
only . moderate crop Of fruit, spurs
that produce bloom but no fruit. often
develop fruit buds the same season.
Where the tree Is bearing light load.
spurs may mature fruit and develop
fruit buds the same season. Varieties
differ and, while some are regular
bearers under almost any treatment,
others show a stubborn inclination to
bear alternate years. After the old
tree has fallen into the habit of bear.
ing only alternate years. 1t is no doubt
harder to get it back to a regular bear
ing habit. "Off-years" are not un-
common with some Of the fruit trees
bearing from axillary fruit buds, but
1t Is not 80 pronounced as with the ap-
pie and pear.
Thinning the Apple.-Fixed rules to
be followed in thinning are hard to
give. Much depends upon the general
thrift of the trees, and. as In pruning,
the grower will have to learn much by
experience. II we thin to encourage
annual bearing, It will be seen that all
the fruit must be removed from some
Of the spurs and, at the same time,
the number Of fruits remaining must
be reduced to such an extent that the
tree is not over-burdened. Some thin
to leave the fruits so far apart. but a
rule fixing certain space between ap-
Piles will not hold good In oil cases.
II We were always sure the tree had
been properly pruned, we might be
able to give satisfactory rule to be
followed, leaving the fruits 10 many
inches apart.
A plan the writer has tried and
found very satisfactory Is to so thin
as to have a certain number of boxes
Of fruit on the tree. Suppose you de-
eide that the trees should produce ten
boxes OF fancy fruit each. A fairly
uniform grade Of apples ranging from
two and one-half to three inches in
diameter will pack about $50 to the
box, and by thinning two or three trees
and leaving the 1900 apples actually
counting them or estimating them as
closely as possible, one learns what a
tree properly thinned should look like
With these trees as . model 1t is sur
prising how close one can come to
leaving Just the right number. think
1t is possible, by careful work, to come
within a box of the IDEAL But know
Ing how much the tree should produce
Is where the experience counts. Not
many varieties Of apples will require
much thinning before they are ten
years old. and at this age the average
tree should produce about eight boxes
Of fancy fruit
The Peoples Agricultural College.