FRUIT TREES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 11, 20 November 1883, Page 4

FRUIT TREES.

With regard to the thinning of fruit, the advantages following the practice cannot be unrecognised by any one ; for not only is the fruit of superior quality, and the diminished produce of the tree of greater value on that account, but the energies of the tree are conserved and an annual crop is ensured. On the contrary “ small fruit, poor in color, deficient in flavor, often failing to come to full maturity ; barreness, debility, premature decay. Such are some of the lamentable results of over-cropping; results so patent, evils so deplorable, but all of which might be avoided by the exercise of ordinary prudence and forbearance.” Thinning ought, in many instances, to commence with the blossoms ; pear trees in particular, when they reach a certain age, are generally overloaded with blossom, which, if not reduced iu numbers, is too abundant for the supply of nourishment that can be furnished by a tree that may be past its best, the consquence being that of all the multiplicity of flowers very few are able to set their fruit. Again, in the case of trees in full vigor that set an over-abundance of fruit, thinning is of the utmost importance, especially as regards the future welfare of the tree, for a series of heavy crops soon destroys its constitution, and brings it into a state of decrepitude,— Melbourne Leader.