Page 1 6 



BETTER FRQ IT 



June. 1920 



the fact thnl the trees bore too many 

 apples, or, in other words the trees 

 were not properly thinned. It is a 

 known fact that it requires greater ef- 

 fort on the part of the tree to mature 

 the core of the apple than the oilible 

 portion. It must then follow that a 

 tree can mature with less effort ten 

 boxes of apples averaging l.'SO to the 

 box than ten boxes averaging 200 to 

 the box. A tree can properly mature 

 a certain amount of fruit and anything 

 over that will rut down the size of all 

 the fruit as will as the quality. 



If a tree overbore this year, due to 

 lack of proper thinning, more fruit 

 spurs bore fruit than was actually ne- 

 cessary. This put too great a strain on 

 a large number of fruit spurs and as a 

 consequence they did not set the neces- 

 sary fruit buds for next year, and fur- 

 ther, the trees did not make the normal 

 growth. Now then, it can readily be 

 seen that the possibility of heavily 

 loaded trees this year having a normal 

 crop next year is small. 



Alternate Bearing 



Now we have arrived at one reason 

 for the alternate bearing of fruit trees 

 which applies especially to the apple. 

 Taking a period of ten years the most 

 profitable orchard is the one which 

 bears an average crop every year. The 

 alternate method of bearing fruit re- 

 quires about the same amount of care 

 and expense on the off year as it takes 

 to bring through a full crop. 



A tree has its limitations in the 

 amount of fruit it can bear just as 



much as a man is limited in tiic amount 

 of work he can do. 



The re;^l loss by allowing the tree to 

 overbear one year comes the following 

 year wl en a short crop is the result. 



Ovei Hearing retards normal growth 

 of trcis. 



Ovi rbearing one year does not give 

 the Iree a chance to set fruit buds the 

 folliiwing year. 



Orchard Heating 



By C. K. Neilson, Paonia, Colorado 



Editor Brtter Fruit: I have been 

 reading with much interest Mr. Cal- 

 vert's article on orchard heating in your 

 February issue. I have successfully 

 practiced orchard heating for several 

 years and I shouldn't consider fruit 

 growing a sound business proposition 

 without it. Fruit growing, like any 

 other business, must be run to capacity 

 in order to pay. 



I should like, however, to take issue 

 with Mr. Calvert in regard to his ar- 

 rangement of heaters in relation to the 

 trees. We place our heaters just as 

 close as possible to the trees without 

 danger of burning them, giving each 

 tree its own heater. We fried the other 

 method and found that by having the 

 heater in the center of the square on 

 very still nights, which are the most 

 dangerous, the heat went straight up 

 between the trees. According to our 

 plan the heat goes up into each tree, 

 and, there always being at least a slight 

 motion of the air, we can see the smoke 



gently distributing itself all through the 

 tree, and naturally the heat follows the 

 same course. 



I may state that we use crude oil. It 

 is, in my estimation, the only practical 

 fuel. All coal heaters have been 

 abandoned here on account of the ex- 

 cessive labor required, and the impos- 

 sible labor required of regulating them 

 in any way. This is the way I set my 

 orchard heaters: 



-1- 



+ 



-f 



+ 



\ \ 



O- Heaters. 



H-=Trees. 



\ ^Direction of Air Current. 



\ 



Combatting the Strawberry Weevil. 



Thousands of dollars damage is done 

 annually to strawberry beds by the 

 strawberry weevil. This insect cuts the 

 blossom stems so that fruit does not 

 develop. This trouble can be entirely 

 overcome by dusting with sulphur dust 

 and arsenate of lead at the rate of one 

 pound of lead arsenate to five of sul- 

 phur. Make two applications a week 

 apart when the insects first appear. 



Nicotine-Sulphur Dust 



Is the greatest discovery of modern times 

 in the control of insect pest and disease. 



It kills Aphis, Thrips and Red Spider upon 

 contact; death is almost instantaneous; 

 thousands of insects fall dead from trees 

 suspected of harboring only a few. 



The application is rapid ; with the Amer- 

 ican Beauty Dust Sprayer 12 to 15 acres 

 per day per man, and the kill is sure. 



USE THE 



American Beauty Dust Sprayer 



IT IS TRIED AND PROVEN 



The California Sprayer Co. 



6001 - 1 1 Pasadena Avenue 



Los Angeles, California 



mSlM' ^^ 



WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



