ipi4 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page p 



other farms in the same community ample of just what the costs will be. 



might show quite different results. The Beside the fact of the depreciation of 



method of analyzing the various cost the apple orchard already mentioned, 



factors is the feature that is of most other factors such as the variety, age 



practical value. The Department's new and size of trees, the soils and the 



publication aims to outline for the in- climate will influence the actual costs, 



dependent apple grower a method that but not the method of analyzing these 



will enable him to determine the actual costs. Apple growers will find much to 



cost of maintaining and operating his interest them in the new publication 



fruit enterprise on his own farm. It which is being sent free of charge to 



does not attempt to give a concrete ex- such persons as apply for it. 



Itkm of Cost TABLE I 



First Year: Total Per acre Per tree Per bbl. 



Labor ,?50-t.91 $34.2.54 SO.9.58 ?0.53SI 



Cash 418.10 28.364 .793 .44(5 



Fixed cost 294.91 20.007 .559 .315 



Totals .fl,217.92 $82,625 $2,310 .?1.3n0 



Second Year: 



Labor .$856.66 $58,118 $1,625 $0,407 



Cash 966.57 65.574 1.834 .459 



Fixed cost 302.46 20.520 .574 .144 



Totals $2,125.69 $144,212 $4,033 $1,010 



TABLE II— CASH COSTS OX 14.74-ACRE APPLE ORCHARD, CONTAINING 527 TREES, 



FOR TWO YEARS 

 Item of Cost ^ Dislribiilion of Cost ^ 



First Year: Spray Total Per acre Per tree Per bbl. 



Manure charge (50<;i against 1911 apples^ $ 30.77 $ 2.087 $0,058 $0,033 



Spray materials used: 

 First spraying — 



Lime and sulphur, 40 gals, at 4 cents • $ 1.60 1 



Lime and sulphur, 100 gals, at 16 centsf... 16.00 1 ,, „. , „„„ „,_ „„_ 



Tobacco extract, 3 pints, at $1.652 4.69 | ■'*'''' ^■"''''' ■"*' •"'"' 



Lead arsenate, 32 lbs. at 8 cents 2.56 J 



Second spraying — 



Lime and sulphur, 43 gals, at 16 cents 6.88) ,- „, -, „„„ „„„ „,,. 



Lead arsenate, 102 lbs. at 8 cents 8.16 ) ^•'•'** ^■"-" -"-^ •"1'' 



Third spraying — 



Lime arid sulphur, 32 gals, at 16 cents 5.12 I ... „„ _„- noi aio 



Lead arsenate, 77 lbs. at 8 cents 6.16 1 ^^-'' ■'"•* •"-' •"'- 



Fourth spraying — 



Lime and sulphur, 15 gals, at 16 cents 2.40) - oo qco mn Anc 



Lead arsenate. 36 lbs. at 8 cents 2.88 I ■'•'''' "''"' ■""' ■""" 



Barrels, 937, at $0.311 291.41 19.770 .553 .311 



Seed for cover crop t 39.47 2.678 .075 .042 



Total for season $418.10 $28,364 $0,793 $0,446 



Second Year: 

 Manure charge (30r; against 1912 apples) $18.46 $1,252 $0,035 $0,009 



Si>ray materials used: 

 First spraying — 



Lime and sulphur, 80 gals, at 4 ccnis $3.20) ,,_„ aia nor nnc 



Lime and sulphur, 75 gals, at 14 cents 10.50 1 '■'•'"' ■^■'^ •"-'' •'""' 



Second si>raying — 



Lime and sulphur, 44 gals, at 14 cents fi.16 I ,,.. ,„. 



Lead arsenate, 105 lbs. at 8 cents 8.40 f ^^■"'^ •"'*'* •"-'^ ""' 



Third spraying — 



Lime and sulphur, 52% gals, at 14 cents... 7.35 ) ,_ ,„ . ,„„ 



Lead arsenate, 126 lbs. at 8 cents 10.08 1 ''•^•' ^■^''■' •"■^■' •'""* 



Fourth spraying — 



Lime and sulphur, .35 gals, at 14 cents 1.90) .,„„, i iou n-.i aao 



Lead arsenate, 146% lbs. at 8 cents 11.74) '''■'''* '•'"''' •"•" •''"** 



Barrels, 2,104. at $0.421 885.78 60.094 1.681 .421 



Total for season $966.57 $65,574 $1,834 $0,459 



•Vndiluted home-made solution: 36 lbs. lime, 80 lbs. sulphur, 50 gals, water. The cost of 

 labor is included. Rale of dilution, 1 gal. lime and sulphur solution to 7 gals, water, tt'ndi- 

 luted commercial lime and sulphur: Hate of dilution, 1 gal. lime and sulphur solution to 10 gals, 

 water. J Items of seed cost: Clover, ISO lbs. at 16c: oats. 22 bu. at 40c; turnips, 71/2 lbs. at 25e. 



Conditions Affecting Blight and Their Control 



By Deane B. Swingle, BacIei-iolv)gist and 



ONE of the most striking things 

 about blight is its very different be- 

 havior under dill'erent conditions. This 

 has led to an apparent disagreement of 

 observations and a real disagreement of 

 opinion, especially among tliose who 

 have seen it in only one locality. Of 

 the conditions that afl'ect the severity 

 of blight we have two kinds — those that 

 inlhience the number of cases and those 

 thai influence the severity of the cases. 

 Under the former should be listed 

 factors responsible for the spread : 



(a) "Holdover" Cases — The work of 

 Mr. M. B. Waite and others has demon- 

 strated that all, or nearly all, the new 

 cases that appear each spring come 

 from old ones where the organisms 

 have survived the winter in that part 

 of the bark where the diseased part 

 joins the healthy. Some of these "hold- 



Botanist, Montana Agricultural College 



overs" may be found in the orchard, 

 where they are responsible for a local 

 spread, and others occur on nursery 

 stock and may carry the disease for 

 hundreds of miles. 



(b) Insects that accidentally take the 

 disease germs from one case and start 

 new ones. Of these the honey bee, 

 ants, green aphis, bark-boring beetles 

 and pear thiips have been accused by 

 good authorities of being imiiortant 

 carriers. 



(c) Birds — Certain investigators, in- 

 cluding the writer, have observed new 

 cases of blight in pear trees, starting 

 from fresh sap-sucker woimds in the 

 bark. As these trees were in some in- 

 stances well isolated from other cases, 

 it seemed probably that the bird was 

 responsible. 



(d) Pruning Tools, etc.— It has been 

 demonstrated repeatedly that if we cut 

 an active case of blight and then cut 

 through a healthy limb, the latter may 

 become infected. The percentage of 

 such cuts that will result in new in- 

 fections is imich higher in summer 

 than winter. 



(e) Bloom — Repeatedly we have seen 

 hundreds of cases of blight in a single 

 tree from blossom inoculations. Also 

 we have seen trees that failed to bloom 

 almost free, while their neighbors that 

 had blossomed showed many infections. 

 Varieties that bloom early sometimes 

 escape blossom infection, because the 

 blos.soms have fallen before the insects 

 had had a chance to visit any of the 

 bacterial exudate from the "holdover" 

 cases, which sometimes do not give 

 forth this liquid until an unusuallv 

 warm day. 



(f) Water .Sprouts or Sucker.s — These 

 are very tender and more liable to at- 

 tack than slow-growing twigs. When 

 growing around the base of the tree or 

 upon large limbs, they often bring 

 about the death of the tree by giving 

 the blight a start near a vital region. 



(g) Crown-gall — It has been observed 

 repeatedly that galls are readily at- 

 tacked by blight and trees thus attacked 

 are badly damaged or entirely killed. 



(h) Susceptibility of the Tree to In- 

 oculation — It is a fact well known to 

 plant pathologists that we inoculate a 

 tree by wounding the bark and insert- 

 ing virulent blight bacili, or by putting 

 them inside freshly-opened flowers, the 

 disease will sometimes follow and 

 sometimes not. Briefly, we may men- 

 tion that some varieties are easier to 

 inoculate successfully than others and 

 that in a susceptible variety the disease 

 is more readily produced in summer 

 than in winter, in hot weather than in 

 cold, in rapidly-growing parts than 

 in slowly growing, and in small limbs 

 than in large ones. 



Of these conditions that inlluence the 

 severity of blight after the attack is 

 made there are at least five. 



(1) Variety — This is the most impor- 

 tant of all these factors. Perhaps no 

 varieties are entirely inmnine, but some 

 are so nearly so that they never suffer 

 more than a little twig blight un- 

 der ordinary circumstances, while in 

 others, like the Alexander and Trans- 

 cendant (^rab, the disease runs into the 

 large branches and trunks, even when 

 the other conditions mentioned below 

 are quite against the i)rogress of the 

 disease. 



(2) Soil fertility. 



(3) Soil moisture. 

 {■!) Temi)cralure. 



.\nytliing lliat coiili-ibutes to a rapid 

 growth of wood makes the tree more 

 susceptible, and a rich soil under a high 

 state of cultivation and abundance of 

 moisture and hot growing weather, all 

 work to this end. Dry, sod-bound, up- 

 land orchards often resist the blight so 

 well thai no atlenlion is ever jiaid to it. 



(,")! .\ge — Young trees just coming 

 into bearing seem to suffer most, while 

 very old trees with slower growth and 

 thicker and harder bark resist if nnich 

 better. 



