The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1910-06-15

FI1rrc9t very Large
| Considering how Unanimous horl-
Icnltural writers are IN faxoroi the
lpraetlee Of thinning friit upon the
lifees Il IS snfbfisIng how lineCmrnpn
lsthe custom isanpng truit growers
IIt has always seemed To- the writer
that there are two princip reasons 4
for this general neglect Of what he he
firmly belieyesto be- q practical and
useful operation, says Prot. Sears IN
the Country Gent The hrst
and most important reason is that II
lis onA ZOE the things which can be
and stills have fairly salts
factory results. And the second one
| lis that orchardsts imagine 1t much
more expensive operation than It
really Is. orsmake it a more expen-
sive one than II should be. Now, the
principal reasons urged for adopting
the practice are, roughly, in the or
der of their Importance
/. That there is more No. ! fruit
where it is thtnned. Sometimes there
is uctuaiiy more fruit in bulk but al
ways in the available records Of ex-
periments, and in the reports Of prac-
teal growers. there has been mark
ed increase in the percentage Of No.
| fruit. Beach reported some expert
ments In thinning in 1896, in which
the increase Of No. 1 fruit ranged
from 10 per cent to % per cent on
thinned trees, as compared with un-
thinned trees Of the same variety.
2. There is less drain on the ener-
gies of the tree where fruit is thin
ned, and this means a greater prob
ability of consecutive crops. 1t may
seem peculiar. that where there is
little or no increase in the amount Of
fruit produced, there is a decided de-
crease in the extent to which the tree
lis exhausted. But the explanation is
that the greatest drain on the tree
comes from developing the seeds,
and, of course, IL there are half as
many fruits there will be half as
many seeds to bring to maturity.
8. In most fruits, but especially in
peaches and plums. there is less
danger from the ravages Of disease
where fruit is thinned. When fruits
touch each other there is much great
err danger from the brown rot, with
those fruits which are attacked by
It, as the moisture is held between
them, allowing the pores to germi-
nate, when they would not upon sep
arate fruits. And of course, the dis
ease, once started, spreads more rap
idly from fruit to fruit.
1t is also urged in favor Of the
practice that since all fruits must be
handled in picking 1t cost little more
to make two operations Of 1t and take
part of them OF in thinning. With
all these advantages, why is II that
the practice does not become more
general? l have ALREADY given my
notion OF the reasons, and, as help
ing to clear up one Of these, the mis-
apprehension that 1t is an expensive
operation, i should like to rive some
recent experiences in thinning q row
Of Burbank plum trees They are
full-sized, set some eight years ago,
and Should yield an average crop of
two or three bushels, and the time
required for the IS trees in the row
was IS hours and So minutes, This
labor cost 171a cents per hour, so that
the cost per tree was less than 20
cents. II we admit the contention
that a good part of this labor would
have been required to harvest the
plums had they been allowed 10 ma
ture, we certainly have a very trIaing
cost for all the advantages enumer-
ated.
The low cost of this thinning is
certainly due in part to the way in
which it was done. The instructions
we're that the plums should be thin
ned so that they would not touch
when mature. The branches we're
first given quick shake to remove
Ewhat fruit would fall readily, and the
rest req, ired we're then picked off,
taking tie small and defective speci-
mems as far as possible, but not
spending any time in debating which
Of two adjoining plums should be
taken. This, | believe, is one Of the
crucial points In the matter, 10 get
men who will move quickly and yet
who have sufficient judgment to do
the operation properly. 1t certainly
tends to facilitate matters when each
man is timed for each, tree he thins.
The wri.sr believes emphatically in
1.-The value Of thinning, and that this
lis one OF several western practices
(which ought to be more generally
adopted here in the east.
mic renort from the American con-