constructed in such a way that when 

 the pickers are on the platform most 

 of their weight will be transferred to 

 the ends of the sills under the tree, 

 thus giving the picking aid stability 

 and rigidity. 



The planks on which the pickers 

 stand should be about eight inches 

 wide with a pointed nose so as to 

 slide in and around the branches of 

 the tree. They should be mounted in 

 a fan shape, each plank being flexi- 

 bly attached so that it may be moved 

 into or out of the tree as well as 

 sideways. This procedure makes it 

 possible to adjust the planks of the 

 picking platform to meet different 

 limb spacings. 



W. W. Smith 



Giant Mcintosh Sport Used as 

 Apple Parent. A sport of Mcintosh 

 apple at Roger Kimball's farm in 

 Littleton, Mass., produces giant 

 fruits. It has been shown by U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture workers 

 that this sport has twice the number 

 of chromosomes of the ordinary Mc- 

 intosh. It is called a tetraploid. 

 Winter Banana apple has the same 

 number of chromosomes as ordinary 

 Mcintosh, i.e., 34 or a diploid num- 

 ber. 



Crosses of Winter Banana and the 

 Giant Mcintosh were successfully 

 made and 400 seedlings from this 

 parentage are being grown. Some 

 of these should be triploids. It is 

 hoped to combine some of the good 

 qualities of the two parents in one 

 variety. 



E. M. Meader 



Horticultural Work in Northern 

 New Hampshire. In 1948, the Uni- 

 versity of New Hampshire Depart- 

 ment of Horticulture moved its 

 northern New Hampshire experi- 

 mental plots from Colebrook to the 

 Coos County Farm in West Stewarts- 

 town, where we have four acres for 

 vegetable variety trials and 10 acres 

 for orchard and small fruits. 



A 600-tree orchard which contains 

 apple, cherry, plum, prune, apricot, 

 and pear varieties as well as some 

 trees to be tried for hardiness as 

 body stock has been set, and fenced 

 to prevent damage by deer. 



It is still too early to report re- 

 sults from the fruit planting, but a 

 list of the vegetable varieties best 

 suited for the North Country, as 

 shown by these trials, has been 

 published. 



A. F. Yeager 

 Richard Folev 



More Work for Less Money. Plant- 

 breeding operations require the 

 growing of many plants and if all 

 these plants are grown to maturity, 

 a plant-breeding project may be very 

 expensive. For instance, if it is 

 necessary to raise a thousand seed- 

 ling peach trees to bearing age in 

 order to select a desirable one, sev- 

 eral acres of land will be required 

 for a period of years and the cost 

 of fertilizing and maintaining the 

 plants will be heavy. 



A discovery made this spring at 

 the University of New Hampshire 

 is of importance, and gives promise 

 of lessening these expenses. It was 

 observed that germinating peach 

 seeds produce sprouts which vary in 

 color from yellow to white. White 

 seedlings are produced by plants 

 which we know will give white- 

 fruited offspring. In our breeding 

 work in many populations we expect 

 about one-fourth of the seedlings to 

 produce yellow fruit at maturity, 

 and the other three-quarters to pro- 

 duce white fruit. Hence, it is now 

 possible to discard three-quarters of 

 the peach seedlings before they come 

 above the ground, thus reducing the 

 cost of our peach-breeding project 

 by nearly 75 per cent. 



A. F. Yeager 

 E. M. Meader 



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