Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1877 — Thinning Fruit. [ARTICLE]

Thinning Fruit.

At the regular meeting of the American Institute Farmers’ Club, a member said that in abundant seasons it is absolutely necessary to thin fruit for profit. Thinning saves labor in the regular picking, assorting and packing. If all fruit growers will thin, they will soon gain large, fine fruit. Some varieties of peaches—the Barnard, for instance—pay well for thinning. The cost of thinning pnaches will not exceed five cent per basket, but will bring almost or quite double the usual price per basket, besides producing a favorable effect in the next year’s growth of the fruit and wood. The process of thinning is very simple and easy, and was given for the benefit of any who chanced to be uninformed. In thinning leave one peach on a limb six inches long. On last season’s growth make the space as even as possible on the tree, distributing them so they cannot swing and rub one another, or the neighboring limbs and fruits. Finish thinning one limb at a time, and work from the center of the tree. This member thinned his pears as well as his peaches. He leaves but one pear on a spur, picking off from one-half to one-third of the fruit. AVeak trees should be thinned more than strong ones. Apples liable to overbear are increased in size, color and quality by thinning.— Western Rural.