The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-05-17

APPLES WHERE He
WISHES
GROWERS THIS SEASON ARE
MASTERS OF SIZE, QUANTITY
AND POSITION OF FRUIT
THINNING MUST BE SEVERE.

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Pretty soon it will be time for the
provident fruit grower to decide how
many apples he wants to raise on
his trees this year and on which
limbs and how far apart he wants
them to grow, says the Yakima Re-
public. He must make a similar de-
cision In regard to his peach trees
and in regard to his apricot trees
also. Having rendered his decision,
he needed only to carry 1t out ac-
cording to the dictates of his own
sweet will. for the grower of fruit
can have just as many or just as
few apples or peaches on his trees
this summer as he wants. It Is all
up to him. And he can have them
as large or small as he wants, too.
This isn't any pipe dream, either.
II the man wants apples eight inches
apart all over his trees, he can have
them; II he wants them six inches
apart he can have them; and il he
wants them 80 close together that
they will grow dents into each 9TH
er's sides, there are a good many
trees on which he can have them that
wSy also.
Fruit Growers Paradise.
This may sound untrue to the un-
initiated, 1t may sound a little too
much like a dream of Paradise to
assure the fruit grower that he can
place the apples On his trees to suit
himself and have them grow there
just as If that were where they bel
longed. In fact, it isn't quite SO
fruit grower doesn't put the apples
On to suit himself; he merely goes
to tree which has apples on all the
possible sites for apples and takes
off those he does not want. And
there are so many already on the
trees that he can leave one on at just
any point he wants to.
The same conditions apply to the
peach trees, for almost the first time
in the history of the valley, to the
apricot trees also.
Is Thinning Process.
This process of taking off the SUI
perfluous fruit is called the thinning
process. 1t Is getting toward the
time to begin 1t. Thinning has come
to be one Of the routine duties OF the
western orchardist, but there are yet
a lot of people who are not western
orchariists and to them the thinning
process is a continual source OF sur
prise and wonder.
When they step into an orchard
where the limbs are laden heavy with
little green peaches and see the own
er deliberately strip these limbs, as
it seems, almost bare, they wonder
il he is not crazy. They at least
think, as they look through the rows
and see the ground thickly covered
with wasted fruit, that the orchard
list has been a little more than Or
dinarily energetic and wasteful for
the purpose of impressing the stran-
ger with the prolificness Of his trees.
Apples 8 Inches Apart.
If he does not stop to consider,
the newcomer naturally asks, why
not let the tree bear all the fruit 1t
will?" but If he stops to consider a
bit farther he will see that no tree
could possibly mature the fruit that
sets-especially the amount of fruit
that has set this year. II 1t did ma
ture the fruit it would be small
fruit, and even at that the weight
of it would break down the trees.
So the orchardists have decided that
to bear apples at distances OF about
8 inches apart is all a reasonable
man should ask of his trees. And
the distance for peaches they put at
6 inches. Apricots, for almost the
first time in the history of the val
ley, need this year to be thinned al
so.
"Knock EN- Off With Clubs"
They'll have to knock 'em off
with clubs" said a fruit man recent
ly, when asked as to the proportion
of apples and peaches which will
need to be thinned off. Which the
gentleman did not mean at all, be-
cause fruit is not treated with clubs
in this part of the country, but this
was the most emphatic way he could
express his idea Of the mercilessness
with which the thinning must be
done
Fifty per cent of the fruit now
on the trees must come off," he said,
although they generally wait until
the fruit is large enough so that they
can tell which will be the best. Yes,
Elberta peaches thin themselves to
a certain extent but the fruit grow
ers make a mistake by depending
on them to do it ALL For even the
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