MarcJi, ip20 



BETTER FRUIT 



Timely Topics and Advice for the Fruitgrower 



The high cost of copper, which is an essen- 

 tial ingredient of bordeaux mixture has led 

 the Bureau of Entomology and Chemistry of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture 

 to experiments to determine whether a bor- 

 deaux mixture can not be prepared which will 

 not be more effective for each unit of copper 

 present than as usually prepared, thus result- 

 ing in a saving of this expensive constituent of 

 this mixture. Studies will also be made of the 

 manufacture of Paris green, lead arsenate and 

 other compounds of arsenic. No systematic 

 studies of all the compounds of arsenic that 

 might be useful in spraying have been made 

 and it is thought probable that such a study 

 will lead either to the development of cheaper 

 sprays, because the constituent elements are 

 cheaper or to sprays that are more effective 

 than the sprays now used. 



Grapes should be pruned during the dormant 

 season, but early enough in the spring to avoid 

 bleeding, this is before the sap rises sufficiently 

 to flow from the wounds. A common hand 

 pruning shears is good for the work. 



Prof. H. P. Barss, Plant Pathologist of the 

 Oregon State Experiment Station advocates the 

 pruning of fruit trees to aid disease control 

 and to accomplish this says that fruit trees 

 should he pruned so as to let light and air into 

 the interior of the trees when in foliage. This 

 can be accomplished by a judicious thinning 

 out. Merc heading back will tend to promote 

 a dense crown of foliage which will exclude 

 light and prevent rapid air circulation within 

 the tree, so necessary from a production stand- 

 point but also to assist in keeping down many 

 infections in such diseases, as scab, brown rot, 

 or leaf spot diseases. These troubles come 

 from spores that require the continued pres- 

 ence of moisture on the surface of leaves or 

 fruit to germinate and infect. Open pruning 

 tends to promote rapid drying off within the 

 trees and makes it more diilicult for the spores 

 to start. 



Anthracnose of cane fruits, such as raspber- 

 ries, blackberries, loganberries, etc., which 

 prevents the plants from sending out fruitin,'? 

 branches except at the top, appears in choco- 

 late brown spots on the new canes and spreads 

 and kills the buds. To control this disease the 

 new canes should be sprayed when about 16 

 or 18 inches high with bordeaux mixture 3-3- 

 50; again about two weeks later and once more 

 before picking time, this last spray to be ap- 

 plied usually between May 20 and June 15. 



In commenting on the innoculation of legu- 

 minous seeds Ethelbert .Johnson, Technical 

 Assistant, Division of Plant Industry, of the 

 California State Department of Agriculture 

 says that a frequent assertion is that inocu- 

 lated seed will give far greater yields than 

 ordinary seed. Under certain conditions this 

 is true. All legumines are capable of harbor- 

 ing on their roots certain organisms which 

 have the power to utilize nitrogen from the air 

 transforming it into a form available to the 

 plant. As nitrogen is a valuable plant food, 

 and one in which soils are generally deficient, 

 a legume will make a much larger growth 

 when these organisms are present, and be- 

 cause of the added supply of available nitro- 

 gen in the soil, the crop following the legum- 

 inous crop will be benefited. Moreover, when 

 the soil is low in available nitrogen, if the 

 proper organisms arc not present in the soil, 

 it will usually be necessary to introduce the 

 organisms in order to get the legume well 

 started. If inoculated seed, therefore, is 

 planted in soil in which the bacteria are not 

 present, it will undoubtedly make a better 

 growth than seed not inoculated. If, however, 

 the bacteria were already present in the soil. 

 the growth would be the same whether the seed 

 were inoculated or not. 



\Y. II. Wicks, director of the Idaho Bureau 

 of Pl.'iut Industry in. an article in the Weekly 

 Markets Bulletin remarks that pruning should 

 be begun in time to have it well finished be- 

 fore any spraying is done. It is a loss of la- 

 bor and material to spray wood which is later 

 to be removed, and, above all. the most thor- 

 ough spraying is not done on trees improperly 

 pruned, in lai-ge projects it is necessary to 

 start pruning in late fall and continue at all 

 times when the wood is not frozen, in order 

 to finish before the first spray is applied. 



Whenever the limb of a tree is blown off or 

 becomes diseased, the stump should be sawed 

 off even and painted with creosote or tar 

 paint; otherwise decay will set in and spread 

 to other parts of the tree. Oftentimes even a 



nail hole will so injure the hark that it will 

 come off leaving the wood underneath unpro- 

 tected. If these spots are left bare, decay will 

 set in and seriously endanger the tree. A coat 

 of creosote or tar paint will prevent spread of 

 decay and gradually the bark will grow over 

 the bare place again. 



The fruit of plums, prunes and cherries is 

 subject to brown rot. This spreads from fruit 

 to fruit in the tree and often becomes very de- 

 structive, especially to prunes. The color of 

 this rot is distinctly brown and affected fruits 

 are soon covered with a dusty dark giayish 

 powder which is a mass of the spores causing 

 the disease. Effective treatment for brown rot 

 consists in spraying with bordeaux mixture 

 4-4-50 or self-boiled lime and sulphur 8-8-50 

 as follows: 1. Just before the blossoms open. 

 2. Just after the petals fall. 3. About two weeks 

 later and again about a month before the 

 fruit is ripe, omitting the last spray for cher- 

 ries. A very beneficial practice also is to pick 

 off all rotting fruit as it appears and later to 

 pick off all the dried up- fruit which remains 

 clinging to the tree and burn it. Plowing the 

 ground around the trees just before they 

 blossom will destroy the fruiting stage of the 

 fungus which grows out of the old fruit on 

 the ground at that time. 



To save apples for the market that have not 

 been too badly frozen they should be covered 

 with some material that will keep the air away 

 from them and allowed to thaw slowly. Be 

 careful to avoid handling them while they are 

 in the process of thawing. The best method is 

 to place the apples where the temperature is 

 cold, but below the freezing point and then 

 covering them over with some material that 

 will exclude the air as much as possible. 



Skookum Association Plans 

 New Methods 



As the result of a three days' meet- 

 ing of the Skookum Packers' Association 

 held at Seattle during the latter part of 

 February to discuss better methods of 

 marketing Northwest apples, it is stated 

 that Washington orchardists will en- 

 deavor to secure the use of the Crown 

 storage spaces, which will give control 

 and housing of 60 per cent of the stale's 

 apple crop and regulate the returns to 



Page 33 



growers. To bring this about the exec- 

 utive committee of the Skookum Asso- 

 ciation was directed by a vote taken at 

 the meeting to open negotiations and 

 report. 



Changes that it is expected will be 

 beneficial to apple marketing operations 

 were brought to the attention of the 

 Washington growers after listening to 

 an address on the subject made by 

 Aaron Sapiro, attorney for a number of 

 cooperative fruit marketing associations 

 in California. 



Other measures contemplated after 

 listening to Mr. Sapiro will include the 

 building or lease of a central cold stor- 

 age plant from which the apples will be 

 shipped from time to time when the 

 demand in the Eastern markets is 

 favorable. 



Among those who spoke at the meet- 

 ing were A. R. Rule, vice president and 

 general manager of the North American 

 Fruit Exchange, W. F. Gwin, general 

 manager of the Northwestern Fruit 

 Exchange, and J. Curtis Robinson, 

 traffic manager of the Northwestern 

 Fruit Exchange. Mr. Rule, in his talk 

 on cooperation, said that there were 

 just as shrewd business men running 

 orchards as were to be found in the 

 marts of trade, but that the orchardist 

 naturally centered all his energies on 

 production, and that he must be aided 

 by skilled selling agencies to market his 

 product for him. This he said could be 

 done at a small per capita expense 

 through cooperative organizations. 



Mr. Robinson, in showing how the 

 shipments of Northwest apples were 

 increasing, reported the shipment of 

 27,083 cars of apples from this district 

 this season, as against 70,795 cars in the 

 entire United States. This, he stated, 

 shows an increase from the Yakima 

 Valley of 32 per cent and from We- 

 natchee of 17 per cent over the preced- 

 ing year. 



Ridley,Houlding&Co. 



COVENT GARDEN, LONDON 



WE ARE 



Specialists in 

 Apples and Pears 



CABLE ADDRESS: BOTANIZING, LONDON 



Codes: A. B. C. 5th Edition and Modern Economy 



WHEN WRITING ADVKIt T ISICKS MENTION litTlER FRUIT 



