July, 19 19 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 7 



the season all ventilators should be 

 opened in the evening and closed early 

 the following morning. The night air 

 is cool, and within a short time after 

 harvest it drops below the freezing 

 point. This air will cool the storage, 

 and quick cooling means better keeping 

 quality. If, however, the vents are left 

 open both day and night all advantage 

 of the cool night air is lost during the 

 day. This is the basis upon which many 

 houses are operated, but it is not good 

 management. 



In answer to the statement sometimes 

 given that it is difficult to keep the stor- 

 age closed during the day when the fruit 

 is being harvested, it might be suggested 

 that in so far as possible the fruit 

 should be allowed to remain under the 

 trees during the night and should be 

 hauled in early the following morning. 

 This method has the double advantage 

 of getting cool fruit into a cool room. 

 WTiere it must be brought in during the 

 heat of the day it might be left on the 

 platform over night. Either of these 

 methods is preferable to putting warm 

 fruit directly in the storage room. If 



this method cannot be avoided the 

 boxes should be taken in on a conveyor 

 which passes through a small opening 

 in the wall. This will allow much less 

 warm air to enter the storage room 

 than would come through a large door. 

 The thermometers should be watched 

 and the temperature kept on the decline. 

 Each extra degree of heat in the storage 

 early in the season means several days 

 off the life of the apple next spring. 

 The keeping quality of the apple is lost 

 in the fall, not in the spring. 



As a further aid in quick cooling 

 enough space should be left between 

 the stacks of fruit in the storage so that 

 the air can have free circulation around 

 at least a part of each box. Main aisle 

 ways in the house should be left 

 directly in front of and above the in- 

 take windows. If fruit is stacked 

 directly over these intakes it decreases 

 their efficiency very much. Except in 

 emergency cases boxes should not be 

 stacked more than six or seven high. If 

 stacked to the ceiling the circulating air 

 is again cut off «nd the cooling of the 

 fruit retarded. Whatever type of house 



one may own, or contemplate owning, 

 good, consistent management counts for 

 more than anything else. 



Specimen of fruit rot caused by anthracnose. 



Early Fall Spraying for Apple Anthracnose Effective 



By Arthur Frank, Plant Pathologist Western Washington Experiment Station, Puyallup, Washington 



were sprayed again with Bordeaux mix- 

 ture and the Burgundy sprayed tree 

 with Burgundy. This spring there 

 could be found but one new canker of 

 the trouble in any of the trees. Last 

 season these same trees were thick with 



IN Western Washington it is fre- 

 quently found that apples rot from 

 the anthracnose quite early in the 

 summer. Cankers of the disease can be 

 found on the limbs of trees with mature 

 spores as early as the middle of July. 

 In a season of abundance of heavy dews 



and frequent fogs it is to be expected 

 that under those conditions consider- 

 able infection of the fruit will take 

 place. 



It was thought desirable to apply an 

 early spray before the apples were 

 picked to see if rotting of the fruit 

 could be prevented. Some trees were 

 secured in the orchard of Mr. C. C. Ire- 

 land near Ferndale, Washington, and 

 with the assistance of Mr. H. B. Carroll, 

 Jr., the county agent, the sprays were 

 applied. The application was made the 

 24th of September, 1918. Burgundy 

 mixture, Bordeaux mixture 3-4-50, and 

 lime sulfur 1 to 40 were used. Boxes of 

 apples from the sprayed trees and also 

 from an unsprayed tree were picked 

 and were stored until March 21, 1919, 

 when the counts were made. The vari- 

 ety was the Salome. The results were 



as follows: 



No. of 



Treatment Apples 



Lime sulphur 171 



girdled twigs and branches and there 

 were many cankers over the entire tree. 



nurgundy 193 



Bordeaux mixture. ... 194 

 Check (no spray).... 186 



Sound 



62% 



80% 



84.5% 



54% 



Dis- 

 eased 

 38% 



20% 



15.5% 



46% 



Young tree girdled by antlir; 



The results with the Bordeaux and 

 the Burgundy mixtures were even more 

 marked than the records show, as the 

 spots were much smaller than in the 

 case of those sprayed with the lime 

 sulfur and the unsprayed. 



\Vhen the apples came from storage 

 no trace of the Bordeaux mixture re- 

 mained on the fruits. A pound of resin 

 fish-oil soap per 50 gallons of spray was 

 used with the two copper solutions 

 when spraying the trees. 



It is thought that if the trees were 

 sprayed earlier that a larger percentage 

 of clean fruit would be secured. The 

 trees, after the apples were picked. 



Specimens of anthracnose on apple tree limbs. 



