ipiS 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page ip 



THE 



The Labor Saver 



Use Only Niagara 

 Dusting Sulphur 



AND 



Dusting Mixtures 



They have been PROVED 

 and approved by those 

 who have made a success 

 of dusting. 



A Ieadingfruit growerof White 

 Salmon Valley (Washington) 

 says: "It took three men fifty 

 hours to apply one spray of 

 liquid in mv orchard, while two 

 of us DUSTED it with equal 

 thoroughness in eight hours." 

 Reports like these come from 

 Hood River, Yakima, We- 

 natchee and every place where 

 the Niagara has been used. 



The Niagara 

 Dusting 

 Machines 



WITH 



NIAGARA 



DUSTING 



MATERIALS 



are responsible for the 



Success of 

 Modern Dusting 



They make possible the best 

 DISTRIBUTION in the most 

 effective form. 



Niagara Dusting Machines 

 and Dusting Materials 



Are distributed from 

 supply stations at 



Oakland, Los Angeles 

 and Portland 



F. A. FRAZIER, Western Distributing Agent, 325 13th St., Oakland, California 



Use Niagara Soluble Sulphur for Dormant and Spring Spraying 



previous season. A few rudimentary 

 leaves are borne in each winter blos- 

 som bud, and each spur bears its own 

 terminal leaf bud. Fruits are produced 

 also from winter buds on the side of 

 the previous season's growth of twigs, 

 but these form a relatively small pro- 

 portion of the cherry crop. The sour 

 cherry, however, very commonly bears 

 a large proportion of its crop from 

 these side buds of the twig and branch 

 growth. The sweet cherry tree is ordi- 

 narily a very vigorous grower, as the 

 young trees, and even in middle life. 

 The young trees grow very vigorously 

 and very tall. Constant cutting back 

 and heavy pruning appears to simply 

 extentuate this characteristic. Ordi- 

 narily the best process of handling the 

 tree is to so modify its tillage and gen- 

 eral cultural condition that a smaller 

 amount of stimulus is given to wood 

 production and to encourage the com- 

 ing into fruit production at an early 

 date. As young trees they can be 

 handled more nearly the same as pear 

 trees than any other of our fruit plants. 

 After fruit production is begun the trees 

 normally assume a broader and more 

 open oval type. However, the general 

 tendency of the tree is to grow very 

 tall, making the fruit picking a very 

 difficult task unless very great care is 

 exercised to keep the trees down within 

 reach of normal operation. This plant 

 is not able to endure heavy shade, and 

 the small fruit spurs become weak and 

 unproductive if severely shaded, and 



will bear irregularly or only one or 

 two crops and then die. The best pro- 

 cess is to cut back and prune out the 

 top constantly so that the fruit spurs 

 may be productive for a period of three 

 or more years. The general plan of 

 operation would be to so prune the tree 

 in its early life that a good framework 

 from three to five main branches will 

 be formed, and that in later life this 

 can carry a load of well-distributed 

 wood. Constant cutting back and thin- 

 ning of the tree top is required. This 

 plant can be pruned more to suit the 

 ideal of the pruner or grower, and still 

 have good results, than can the peach 

 tree. The most difficult point of the 

 work appears to be for the average 

 grower to make up his mind that the 

 tree will endure pruning. After he has 

 fully satisfied himself on that, the gen- 

 eral type of the tree that he has and 

 the type of the tree that he knows he 

 should produce will normally solve to 

 a very large extent the type of work 

 that should be done. The tree responds 

 well to pruning, being invigorated by 

 it, and the general character of the fruit 

 crop produced is improved. The wounds 

 made by priming usually heal over well 

 and seldom result in any disease or 

 trouble to the tree. 



Sour cherries are very frequently en- 

 tirely neglected and not pruned at all. 

 In fact, it is frequently advocated that 

 they require, or need, no pruning. The 

 facts are, however, that they respond 

 quite as well to pruning as most of our 

 other fruit plants, and in careful or- 



chard work it is a profitable operation. 

 The plants can be pruned very much 

 after the same fashion as the peach 

 tree, although it requires less vigorous 

 work. 



In all of the stone fruits the plants 

 have a normal capacity to reproduce 

 their new tops after the old is cut away, 

 particularly if this cutting back has not 

 extended into wood more than four or 

 five years old. The same general prin- 

 ciple applies, however, to these plants 

 as to others. That the influence of 

 pruning extends only a relatively small 

 district from the part pruned. Pruning 

 one side of a tree does not ordinarily 

 directly nor indirectly affect the devel- 

 opment of the other side. The stimulus 

 developed from cutting otf a branch is 

 seldom distinctly noticeable more than 

 three feet from the point at which the 

 cutting was done. 



In the treatment of wounds on fruit 

 trees, it may be worth while to state 

 that paint and washes are seldom nec- 

 essary or advisable. About the best 

 paint that can ordinarily be used is 

 some antiseptic material. A good, 

 heavy coating of lime-sulphur or bor- 

 deaux mixture, or a solution of cor- 

 rosive sublimate is probably as good as 

 can be used. In the pruning of most 

 of the stone fruit trees, less care is ex- 

 ercised generally than in the longer- 

 lived trees. The work is done more 

 rapidly and more frequently in a sort 

 of cut-and-slasli method. Rapid work 

 should not be discouraged, but careless 

 work should always he discouraged. 



