19 1 4 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 35 



No Oatside 



Bindiog 



Posts. 



Larse 3-io. 

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 Load and 

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Stands rd 



Bell" Type 

 TransmiJer. 

 MaximoDi 

 EfficicDcy. 



Ooe- piece 

 Generator 

 Craoic. 



Special 



Self-adjoitiiw 



Lock. 



Transmitter moonted 

 on substantial black- 

 enameled casting, 

 securely fastened 

 to cabinet by 

 four screwi. 



The Leading Rural Telephone 



The above diagram sho'ws why your next telephone should 

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Western ^ Etectric 



Rural Telephone 



We shall be glad to send on request any or all of the following 

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WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY 



Manufacturers of the 8,000,000 "Bell" Telephones 



EQUIPMENT FOR EVERY ELECTRICAL NEED 



Prevention of Wood Decay in Fruit Trees 



By Professor \V. T. Home, University of California 



THE decay and disappearance of 

 wood in the center of large forest 

 Irees give us the well-known hollow 

 ti'ces. Such trees may live for many 

 Ncars, but are liable to be broken down 

 or blown over. In our orchards also 

 wood decay is common. Decayed 

 orchard trees may live for some years 

 and bear reasonable croi)s, but usually 

 a heavy load of fruit breaks off one 

 limb after another and the tree becomes 

 a worthless stub. Peaches are especi- 

 ally subject to rapid loss in this way, 

 but all our fruit trees are more or less 

 affected by this plague. The decays 

 considered in this article are those 



which start from some surface of dead 

 bark or wood and spread through the 

 center of trunk and limbs without 

 affecting, at least for some time, the 

 bark and cambium. This kind of decay 

 should not be confused with the oak 

 fungous disease which affects pri- 

 marily the roots, but may spread up 

 some little distance into the trunk. It 

 affects perfectly sound and healthy 

 roots and kills the bark, causing it to 

 decay in a characteristic manner, and 

 then spreads into the wood, causing a 

 soft, light-colored decay. In contrast 

 with the oak fungous disease, the com- 

 mon wood decays do not attack per- 



fectly sound, healthy trees with un- 

 broken bark, but the rot starts from 

 some exposed wood and then works 

 up and down through the center of 

 the tree. 



Fruit trees with decayed centers may 

 bear heavily, but usually such trees 

 rapidly become cripples. Not only is 

 the carrying strength reduced, but 

 there is good evidence that many of the 

 dead limbs seen in orchards are due to 

 wood decay which has worked out- 

 ward to the bark. Mr. C. J. Rodgers of 

 Watsonville, working in our laboratory, 

 has shown that the so-called sappy- 

 bark disease of apples is due to one of 

 these fungi. That such decays are com- 

 mon is generally conceded, but no defi- 

 nite data have been available. Accord- 

 ingly Mr. W. W. Thomas made careful 

 counts in representative orchards in 

 three regions. Coast valley, inferior val- 

 ley and foothills, ^^'hiie the results 

 secured may not be at all final, they 

 clearly show several facts with respect 

 to stone fruits. (1) Contrary to antici- 

 pation, wood decays are more prevalent 

 in the hot interior valleys and foot- 

 hills than in the cooler and more humid 

 Coast valleys. The winter moisture in 

 the three regions is not very different, 

 while the more frequent sunburn and 

 wider cracking of large pruning wounds 

 doubtless account for the facts found. 

 Also in the orchards examined there 

 had been less grafting over of bearing 

 frees in the Coast region. (2) It ap- 

 pears that more than half the stone- 

 fruit frees of bearing size in California 

 are certainly affected with wood decay. 

 (3) Not much more than two per cent 

 of stone-fruit frees are free from sun- 

 burn or large wounds. (4) By far the 

 largest part of infection comes from 

 sunburn, large pruning wounds or 

 .arafting over stubs. (5) Fully two- 

 thirds of the decay is caused by the 

 common oyster-shell fungus, Polysfic- 

 tis versicolor. A dozen other fungi will 

 probably include nearly all of the com- 

 mon wood decay forms in orchards. 

 We believe wood decay is a trouble of 

 stupendous importance to the Califor- 

 nia fruit industry. Professor Wickson 

 says: "There are instances in the 

 earliest settled parts of the state where 

 peach trees above fifty years old are 

 still vigorous and productive. * * * 

 Some frees have, in fact, gone along in 

 thrift * * • because they have never 

 been allowed to sunburn; * * • have 

 never been pruned with an axe, and 

 have never lost a limb nor had a wound 

 info which decay could penetrate and 

 descend to the root." 



Wood decay docs not sot in because 

 a tree is old or ordinarily because it is 

 weakened by lack of food or water. 

 Neither is it a natural process neces- 

 sarily following exposure to air and 

 moisture. Serious wood decay is due 

 to infection by any one of several fungi 

 which gain entrance at some point 

 where the wood is exposed or where 

 the bark is dead. The fungus grows in 

 the wood, digests if and uses it up, 

 finally leaving only a little ash. This 

 I)rocess of digestion constitutes decay. 

 Infection must take place from spores 



