July, 1920 



BETTER FRU IT 



Page 7 



made the following recommendations: 



1. The same drying nomenclature 

 shall be applied to fruits and vege- 

 tables. 



2. The term "dried" is applied to all 

 fruits and vegetables preserved by re- 

 moval of moisture, irrespective of the 

 method of removal. 



3. There are but two general classes 

 of dried fruits or vegetables, namely, 

 those dried principally by solar heat 

 and those dried principally by artificial 

 heat. 



4. The class dried principally by 

 solar heat shall be designated "sun- 

 dried," by which is meant the removal 

 of moisture by solar heat without con- 

 trol of temperature, humidity or air 

 flow. 



5. The class dried principally by art- 

 ificial heat shall be designated either 

 "evaporated" or "dehydrated." The 



committee finds at this time no suffici- 

 ent reasons for distinguishing between 

 "evaporated" and "dehydrated." These 

 two terms are synonymous and may be 

 used interchangeably. 



The above recommendations were 

 first submitted to the College of Agri- 

 culture of the University of California. 

 Dr. H. J. Webber, director of the Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, makes the 

 following statement: 



"The nomenclature proposed by the 

 committee has also been adopted by a 

 committee of the college of agriculture 

 of the University of California for use 

 in the publications on dried fruits and 

 vegetables." 



The nomenclature committee recom- 

 mends that the above definitions be 

 adopted by all concerned. The commit- 

 tee feels that this would largely elimin- 

 ate the existing confusion. 



Brown Rot of Apricots and Its Prevention 



By W. L. Howard, in Charge Deciduous Fruit Station, Mountain View, California 



DURING the past five or six years 

 the brown rot disease of apricots 

 has been rapidly on the increase in 

 California, especially in the San Fran- 

 cisco Bay region and the coastal val- 

 leys. While brown rot is comparatively 

 new to California, it is one of the old- 

 est diseases of stone fruits in the east- 

 ern and southern states and in Europe. 

 Strangely enough, the brown rot is a 

 midsummer disease in the eastern 

 states, and never attacks anything but 

 the fruit. In California it does its 

 chief damage by attacking the flower 

 clusters and then quickly killing the 

 fruiting spurs. The disease may attack 

 the fruit of apricots and even prunes 

 when full grown or nearly ripe. Our 

 chief protection against damage to the 

 ripe fruit is the dry atmospheric condi- 

 tions which prevail in June and early 

 July. Peaches, in the interior valleys 

 particularly, are safe because the air is 

 much too dry during July and August 

 for the fungus to make any progress. 



Weather conditions seem to have a 

 good deal to do with the occurrence of 

 brown rot, as it attacks the flower 

 clusters in early spring. The colder and 

 wetter the weather at blooming time, 

 the greater the danger of brown rot 

 occurrence. As a rule, the disease oc- 

 curs most abundantly in low places 

 where there is most likelihood of frost 

 injury. 



The disease appears in early spring, 

 just after the trees are out of bloom, 

 first attacking the blossoms, then 

 spreading into the fruit spurs. The 

 flower clusters are quickly destroyed, 

 and the spurs and sometimes even the 

 older wood are killed in a very short 

 lime. Although the rot spreads down- 

 ward, it rarely kills wood that is more 

 than two years old. The fungus may be 

 carried into five or six-year old wood 

 through the medium of a short spur, 

 but here it has to stop, as it is unable 

 to go any further. The disease is char- 

 acterized by excessive gumming of af- 

 fected twigs, particularly at the point 

 where it has been checked in its 

 spread. 



In January, 1920, the University of 



California established at Mountain 

 View in the Santa Clara Valley a De- 

 ciduous Fruit Experiment Station. One 

 of the first problems taken up was a 

 study of control measures for the 

 brown rot disease. Seventeen or eigh- 

 teen different spray treatments were 

 tried. At the same time several com- 

 mercial orchards that had been sprayed 

 one, two, or three times were kept 

 under close observation. As a result 

 of these experiments and observations, 

 it is now believed that a single spray- 

 ing of lime sulphur at winter strength, 

 that is, one gallon of lime sulphur to 

 nine gallons of water, if given just as 

 the trees are coming into bloom, will 

 control the disease. Dry lime sulphur 

 twelve pounds in fifty gallons of water 

 also gave good results, and bordeaux 

 mixture 4-5-50 was also effective. 



The main thing is to spray before 

 the flowers begin to fall. The ideal 

 stage at which to spray would be after 

 the latest buds are beginning to show 

 pink and as the forward buds are be- 

 ginning to open. Spraying with any 

 materials as the trees were going out of 

 bloom did little or no good. Spraying 

 with lime sulphur 1-30 as the leaf buds 

 were beginning to open caused serious 

 injury to the foliage. Spraying with 

 a crude oil emulsion when buds were 

 much swollen caused no injury to the 

 buds, probably due to the fact that the 

 weather was cloudy. We are not yet 

 ready to advise using oil sprays so late 

 in the season; they are very promising, 

 however, and will be given further 

 trial. A miscible oil spray, applied 

 when buds were much swollen, gave 

 no protection whatever against the 

 disease. The same is true of lime 

 whitewash and of dry sulphur dusted 

 on the trees. 



Spraying when buds were swelling 

 but none showing pink gave consider- 

 able protection, but was less satisfac- 

 tory than where buds were showing 

 pink pr even opening. 



The experimental trees were sprayed 

 at different times and with different ma- 

 terials from February 17 to March 10, 

 but up to the present writing (June 22) 



no injurious effects are noticeable on 

 either fruit or foliage. The same is 

 true of two large commercial orchards 

 nearby which are under close observa- 

 tion. One of these orchards has been 

 sprayed three years in succession with 

 lime sulphur against the brown rot. 

 This season it received three applica- 

 tions, two before the bloom and one 

 after. The owner of this orchard feels 

 that spraying with lime sulphur after 

 the trees are out of bloom not only 

 does no good whatever, but is likely to 

 cause the fruit to be smaller than it 

 should be. 



It is impracticable to try to cut out 

 the diseased twigs for six or eight 

 weeks after blooming time or until 

 after the disease has stopped advanc- 

 ing and new sprouts back of the 

 diseased area have come out. Cutting 

 before the dormant buds begin to break 

 may be worse than useless, as it is dif- 

 ficult to tell whether all the diseased 

 parts have been removed or whether 

 one is cutting unnecessarily far back 

 on the twigs. There is very little dan- 

 ger of the disease spreading from the 

 dead or dying twigs to the fruit. All 

 these twigs, however, should be re- 

 moved, at the latest, when the winter 

 pruning is done. Many prefer to take 

 them out just after the fruit is har- 

 vested. This is very well, as the dis- 

 eased parts are much more easily rec- 

 ognized then than in winter. 



The best protection against the rot in 

 the fruit is to thin the apricots so that 

 they do not touch, even when ripe. 

 Where fruits stand alone, moisture 

 from dew or fogs at night will dry up 

 so quickly that the spores of the dis- 

 ease are unable to germinate. 



The apricot crop in the Santa Clara 

 Valley this year was reduced perhaps 

 25 per cent by the brown rot. In the 

 foothills there are some orchards with 

 only a trace of the disease, while in the 

 valleys and in the mountains the loss 

 ranged from 10 per cent to 100 per cent. 



The brown rot probably spreads 

 chiefly from the spores which ripen on 

 the decayed fruits. It is customary in 

 harvesting for the pickers to leave the 

 fruiis showing a little rot on the trees. 

 These dry up and hang on all winter. 

 In the spring these mummied fruits are 

 covered literally with tens of thousands 

 of spores which blow away and, if they 

 find congenial conditions on flowers or 

 fruit, quickly germinate and grow. All 

 mummies should be picked off and 

 burned. At the same time, all diseased 

 twigs should be cut out and the prun- 

 ings raked up and burned. 



Cement Coated Wire Nails 



If your dealer cannot or will not 

 supply you -with Nails, we probably 

 can do so. 



A. C. RULOFSON CO. 

 Monadnock Building, San Francisco 



Kills prairie doga, KToandhotrs, 

 around Buuirrels, pocket Roph- 

 olfalfa. Experiment- 

 al stations upprovc. 1OO0 tablet* 

 " " $1.50. Warranted Ask 

 drufffrist or Bend direct. 



