38 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.35 



If delayed until the summer the effect is very deleterious and remains in 

 evidence for many years afterwards. If the operation can not be done before 

 summer, it is recommended that it be deferred until the succeeding winter. 

 When this cutting back is deferred to the end of the first year and is followed 

 by excessive root growth very strong branch growth subsequently occurs, at 

 least during one season. The tree often continues this growth and does not 

 come into proper bearing until several years later than similar trees which 

 have been cut back at the time of transplanting. 



Evidence was obtained as to the importance of trees being exposed as little 

 as possible during the i-emoval from the nursery to the plantation. Trees 

 which were left in a shed for four days after being lifted and before being 

 planted suffered to the extent of about 50 per cent in their subsequent growth. 

 The authors attribute the less satisfactory results from spring planting as 

 compared to early winter planting to the exposure to the more prevalent 

 drying winds in the spring. 



Experiments dealing with the effect of branch pruning on fruit production 

 were continued (E. S. R., 19, p. 142), the results pi-eviously noted being con- 

 firmed and extended. The results show in general that to secure the heaviest 

 crops the pruning should be just sufficient to develop healthy, well-formed trees. 



Winter washes tried at Wisley, 1914—15, H. M. Lefkoy {Jour. Roy. Hort. 

 Soc, 41 (1915), No. 2, pp. 230-233) .—The author reports tests of a number of 

 winter washes used on apple and plum trees. The washes were studied with 

 special reference to solubility in or miscibility with water, corrosiveness as 

 affecting the rubber tubing, etc., effect on workers or their clothes, wetting 

 power, cost, and general effectiveness of the wash. 



Experiment in setting' apple trees, C. D. Woods (Alaine Sta. Bui. 246 (1916), 

 pp. 28-30). — A number of Baldwin apple trees were planted in 1913, part of the 

 trees being set in the usual way by digging holes in the spring with a spade. 

 The remainder of the trees were planted in the spring in soil that had been 

 loosened with dynamite the previous fall. Practically no difference in growth 

 was observed between the two lots of trees in 1913 and in 1914. In the spring 

 of 1915, however, it was found that about 39 per cent of the trees planted in 

 the holes previously dynamited were either winterkilled or badly injured as 

 compared with only 8 per cent of those planted in the usual way. No general 

 conclusion is drawn from these data. For the soil in question, however, which 

 is a moderately heavy, reddish loam underlain with a very difficultly pene- 

 trable subsoil, it appears that dynamiting is of no value in setting trees. 



Fertilizer experiments on apple trees at Highmoor Farm, C. D. Woods 

 (Maine Sta. Bui. 246 (1916), pp. 2-4). — In connection with some fertilizer ex- 

 periments with apple trees conducted at the Highmoor Farm for several years 

 a test is being made of highly nitrogenous fertilizers as a means of forcing trees 

 into bearing. Each year the orchards as a whole have received a commercial 

 fertilizer carrying 4 per cent nitrogen, 8 per cent available phosphoric acid, 

 and 7 per cent potash at the rate of 1,000 lbs. per acre. In the excess nitrogen 

 plats the trees have received in addition nitrate of soda at the rate of 100 

 lbs. per acre. Thus far no differences that could be attributed to the addi- 

 tional nitrogen in the fertilizers have been noticed. 



An experiment was begun in 1912 with some 400 trees which had received 

 all the above noted fertilizer treatment for three years. The trees were divided 

 Into 3 plats, one of which received no fertilizer, the second 500 lbs. per acre 

 annually of the 4:8:7 formula, and the third of which received 1,000 lbs. per 

 acre of the 4 : 8 : 7 formula. Observations to date failed to show any differences 

 even in appearance between the fully fertilized, partially fertilized, and un- 

 fertilized trees. The actual yields in fruit, however, in 1914 and in 1915, 



