42 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



culture in Oregon, selection and planting of the trees, soil, and location of the orchard. 

 In the present bulletin the subjects discussed are the varieties of apples for home use, 

 pollination, cultivation, cover crops, and pruning. 



In discussing the effect of soil and season oh pollination the author states that the 

 self-fertility of the Italian prune is considerably affected by these factors. Some, 

 years in western Oregon and western Washington orchards bear full crops in all sec- 

 tions. In other years only a few orchards bear, or one orchard may bear in a locality 

 while all the others are barren. 



The relation between the blooming periods of different varieties of apples has been 

 found to vary considerably in < Oregon in different seasons and localities. The period 

 from first bloom to full bloom also varies in different seasons. Thus, "in 1896, Del- 

 aware Red and Dominie were in full blossom 17 days apart, but in 1897 they were 

 in full blossom only 2 days apart." The time intervening between the period of 

 first and full bloom in the case of Fameuse one year was 7 days, another year 3 days, 

 another L2 days, another 9 days, another 14 days, and another 8 days. In one local- 

 ity the Yellow Newtown bloomed 2 days before Northern Spy, while in another locality 

 Northern Spy bloomed 5 days before Yellow Newtown. A table is given showing the 

 period of first blossom, full blossom, and the fall of blossom, respectively, for 110 

 varieties of apples grown in the State for each of 7 years. 



Hairy vetch appears to be a very satisfactory orchard cover crop in Oregon. In 

 the discussion of pruning special attention is called to the losses among prunes as a 

 result of injudicious pruning at setting-out time. The prunes are set out usually in 

 the late fall or early winter and cut back to mere stubs, which exposes a large wound. 

 These wounds should be painted over with white lead in which has been dissolved 

 a little sulphate of copper. 



In western Oregon fruit on low-headed apple trees is often of indifferent color, 

 while that on trees of medium to high heads is of fair to high color. For this reason 

 the author suggests that trees of late fall and winter varieties be headed or trained 

 high in that section, while summer or early fall varieties may be headed low if 

 desired. 



The presence of abnormal quantities of starch in bruised apples, G. Var- 

 collier {Cidre et Poire, 1904, Aug.; abs. in Rev. Soc. Sci. Hyg. Aliment., 1 (1904), No. 

 5, pp. 578, 579). — While ripe apples contain little if any starch, bruised apples were 

 found to contain large amounts in the vicinity of the bruise. This injures their 

 value for cider making, as the starch is not converted into sugar. 



Experiments in girdling fruit trees, J. E. May ( Pract. Fruit Grower, 11 (1905), 

 No. 195, p. 11). — The author ringed a number of 8-year-old apple trees which had 

 not borne fruit. The following seasons both ringed and unringed trees bloomed 

 full. Soon, however, the blossoms on the ungirdled trees showed signs of blasting 

 and within a few weeks there were scarcely any apples on them, "while on the girdled 

 trees the blooms stayed and set large quantities of fruit, which hung on well and 

 colored very much more than on the other trees." 



In one instance a girdled York tree produced 9.5 bu. of fruit, while an ungirdled 

 tree alongside produced but 1 bu. Attention is called to the necessity of carefully 

 observing the trees after they have been girdled to see that the wound is healing 

 over properly. 



The olive tree; its geographical distribution and historical and agricul- 

 tural importance, T. Fischer (Mitt. Justus Perthes^ Geogr. Anst., Erganzungsh, 147, 

 pp. 87, map 1) . — There are 2 main divisions of this pamphlet. One deals with the 

 history of the olive, its botany, cultural requirements, diseases, varieties, oil pro- 

 duction, etc., and the other with the culture of olives in the different countries of 

 the world, especially those districts bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. 



The book of topiary, C. H. Curtis and W. Gibson (London and New York: John 

 Lane, 1904, pp. VIII -f- 80, }Js. J4).— The history is given of this method of training 



