308 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



the injury to trees and fruit will be very slight. I do not state .the 

 following as a proved fact, biit it seems to me, from several years' 

 experience with these sprays, that they assist in holding in check one 

 of the worst diseases the apricot grower has to contend with, i. e., the 

 brown rot. I have made a great many elaborate experiments with 

 recommended cures for this troublesome fungus by the use of fungi- 

 cides in winter and spring and on the ripening fruit, but the results 

 were absolutely negative, while since I have used the above emulsions 

 I have at- least escapes any serious injury to either the little setting 

 fruitlets or to the mature and ripening fruit, and as a consequence I 

 have had more than average crops for several years. 



This brown rot, as well as what I am told are other rots, often attack 

 the little fruit, especially in the dense clusters, just as it is, or should 

 be, casting off the calyx of the blossom. If we have a moist, warm, 

 rainy or cloud}^ period at this critical time the casting oft' of the ring 

 of the calyx is too slow, it seems, and rot develops often to such an 

 extent as to materially reduce the crop. Sometimes just about enough 

 drop to thin out the bunches and actually save work later. However, 

 the brown rot disease seems more likely after a spring attack to develop 

 in the ripening fruit with sometimes very serious results, causing a 

 loss of from ten up to fifty per cent in very bad years. The only way 

 to guard against this injury to mature fruit that I know of is to pick 

 as closely as you can each time over the trees and rush it oft' without 

 the slightest delay, to canner or drier, as the case may be. A prompt 

 destruction' of fruit that shows the spores of the fungus and the burning 

 of the mummified fruit, if any, in the trees, at the time of pruning, I 

 have always insisted on, and probably with some benefit. Shot-hole 

 fungus is sometimes troublesome, but the oil sprays in winter probably 

 do some good and the recommended fungicides are efficient. 



Borers are a very serious pest where the}^ get started and the cutting, 

 if done carelessly, often causes much injury to trees. A preparation 

 of asphalt that might be handled without the difficulty of the ordinary 

 commercial brands would go far toward eradicating this serious menace 

 to our orchards. 



There is another fungous disease we call die back. It will sud- 

 denly attack a seemingly healthy tree and in a week or two a whole 

 limb, or possibly most of the top, will wilt and die. Severe cutting 

 below the injured filler in the limb is the only remedy I know, but I 

 tried a preventive that seemed to work. I had observed tliat the peach 

 trees did not have that disease so concluded to get as much peach wood 

 as possible in my apricot trees. I took good yearling peach trees and 

 planted them early in the winter, so that they rooted early, and then in 

 February grafted the stems about two feet from the ground to apricots. 

 The grafts took well, and in a few years made fine trees that have been 

 practically immune to the attacks of the disease. 



Apricot trees have suft'ered from no other serious disease in the sec- 

 tion of the State of which I write, except root knots. 



I figure that up toward half the apricot trees in the State are within 

 thirty miles of Niles, and from what I can learn the planting is much 

 heavier in this central coast region than anywhere else in the State, 

 and all of these apricots are for canning and drying, but there is every 

 prospect of a good market in the future for an increasing tonnage of 



