IQip 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 25 



branch was cut off the leaves would 

 draw water from the fruit to supply 

 the amount required for transpiration. 

 He also found in several cases that the 

 leaves would extract water much more 

 readily from the immature than from 

 the ripe fruit. His demonstrations in- 

 cluded the cherry, plum, peach, apple, 

 gooseberry, grape, cucumber, gourd and 

 watermelon. In his tests the foliage 

 withdrew moisture from the fruit until 

 the fruit became greatly shrunken and 

 shriveled, while the leaves maintained 

 a normal and healthy appearance. 



More recently Hodgson, in California, 

 has demonstrated that in the citrus 

 groves in certain sections of that state 

 there is during hot weather a regular 

 daily withdrawal of water from the 

 growing fruit in the daytime, this 

 reaching a maximum in the afternoon, 

 followed by a restoration of the water 

 content at night when the roots are 

 again able to supply moisture sufhcient 

 for the needs of the trees. Hodgson is 

 inclined to think that the excessive 

 drop of imamture fruit in some of the 

 California citrus orchards may possibly 

 be accounted for on the grounds that 

 in extremely hot periods the extraction 

 of moisture from the fruit goes so far 

 that the tree cannot restore the water 

 loss completely and as a consequence 

 cuts off the fruit and casts it on the 

 ground. This suggests that periods of 

 summer drop in prunes and other de- 

 ciduous fruits may sometimes be 

 attributable to similar causes. 



At the Geneva Experiment Station 

 Mix has done some valuable work on 

 the effect of drouth on apples in New 

 York, and in the Wenatchee district of 

 Washington Brooks and Fisher have 

 studied the relation of abnormalities in 

 the development of apple fruits to in- 

 sufficient or irregular water supply at 

 critical periods in the fruit growth. 

 The peculiar external blotching known 

 now as drouth spot and the develop- 

 ment of corky spots or browned areas 

 within the fruit have been definitely 

 connected by these workers with con- 

 ditions of excessive transpiration from 

 the foliage and inadequate delivery of 

 water by the root system or with sud- 

 den variations in the water balance 

 within the trees. Mix has even suc- 

 ceeded in reproducing the drouth spot 

 and occasionally spots resembling cork 

 artificially by severing from the tree 

 branches bearing both leaves and fruit, 

 allowing the leaves to withdraw moist- 

 ure from the fruit and then restoring 

 the original state by placing the 

 branches in water. The fruits thus 

 treated show an apeparance very sim- 

 ilar to the corrugated appearance of 

 the diseased prunes under discussion, 

 which is accompanied by the death 

 and browning of cells in the vicinity of 

 the network of veins, as in the case 

 also of our prunes. 



There has been an unfortunate lack 

 of extensive experimental work as yet 

 on the effects of disturbed water rela- 

 tions on fruits of all kinds. We are 

 thankful for the start made in this 

 direction by the scientific workers 

 mentioned above. The results of their 

 studies are interesting and highly sug- 



Che/aical 





Farmers, Fruit Growers and Home Owners 

 ATTENTION ! 



Write for our big descriptive catalogue and prices for trees delivered to your 

 nearest railway station, freight paid. 



PEARS PAY. Chester Ferguson, of Yakima, Washington, realized an average 

 of $2,016 per acre for pears this year, 1918. PLANT PEARS. 



Agents wanted to represent us in each locality. Address 



OREGON NURSERY COMPANY 



ORENCO, OREGON 



gcstive as far as they go, and they seem 

 to throw some light on the problems 

 we arc discussing with regard to the 

 prune. 



At this point I wish to call attention 

 to another condition in prune fruits 

 which has often caused much loss and 

 appears, as a rule, according to my ob- 



servations, later in the season than the 

 other troubles mentioned. This is 

 what I have sometimes called internal 

 browning. It generally comes on about 

 the ripening period and sometimes the 

 grower is unaware of its existence 

 until he examines some of the fruit 

 preparatory to harvesting. The flesh 



