-5- 



Here ' s a W ild On e. At the Soil Conservation Service Gracs Nursery 

 in Pullnan, Wachin^jton, a ^-'lot of Siberian wild rye grass, a new- 

 comer, hac cuch an a^gretiGive root nynten thpt it has to be fenced 

 as a safeguard againct its uncontrolled spread. The fence Is a 

 sheet of galvanized iron e""tending nearly three feet do^/n in the 

 ground. One plant row got away before the nursery people realized 

 what they were dealing with, end roots shot out twelve feet with 

 the center stolon going down three feet. 



A n Early Inmigrant . The honeybee as we knov/ it in America was not 

 originally a native insect, for there vrere no true honeybees in 

 this country when the first Europeans arrived here. Of course there 

 were the many kinds of wild bees vrhlch we still have, and there v/ere 

 many bumblebees native to this country. The value of the true honey- 

 bee was early recognized by the colonists, and ps early as I63S im- 

 portations of honeybees were made to New England. The earliest im- 

 portations were of the black bee or so-called G-erraan bee from Europe, 

 and that type is still very comm.on In some sections of the country. 

 However, because the yellow or Italian bee was later found to be 

 much more gentle and tractable, it has replaced the black bee to a 

 large extent. 



Winter Injury in Washington . The state of Washington experienced 

 injury to fruit trees in 1935"^ of a similar nature but lees serious 

 than that in Nev; England in 1933-^. The injury was confined to the 

 above ground portion of the trees. In some cases young trees de- 

 veloped severe bark cracks, and where the bark was tacked dov;n early, 

 recovery was facilitated. Yellow Newtoivn, Golden Delicious and Red 

 Rome showed greatest trun'; injury. Young pear and sweet cherry 

 trees were injured about as seriously as apples. Crotch injury vras 

 particularly serious v/ith trees located in the higher val'^.eys. Evi- 

 dence from pruning injured trees indicates the desirability of de- 

 ferring pruning until after the severe xvinter weather is past. 



Philosophy of Th or eau . "After having read va.rious books on various 

 subjects for some months, I take up a report on farms bv a comnitte'; 

 of Middlesex Husbandmen, and re; d of the number of acres of bog that 

 some farmer has redeemed, and the number of rods of stone v^all that 

 he has built, and the number of tons of hay that he now cuts, or of 

 bushels of corn or potatoes he raises there, and I feel as if I had 

 got ny foot dovrn on to the solid and sunny earth, the basis of all 

 philosophy and poetry, and religion even. I have faith that the man 

 who redeemed some acres of land the past summer redeemed also some 

 parts of his chara.cter. I shall not expect to find him ever in the 

 almshouse or the prison. He is in fact so far on his way to heaven. 

 When he took the farm there was not a grafted tree in it, rn^ now 

 he realizes something handsome from the sale of fruit. These, in 

 the absence of other facts, are evidences of a certain -^.oral worth. " 

 (Henry D. Thoreau 's Journal, Vol. VIII, pg. 327, written about 1550.) 



Striped M cint osh and the Cull? Grant Hitchings, an. Onondaga County, 

 N. Y. fruit grower, mak^es a suggestion in the Rural New Yorker that 

 if anyone was unfortunate enough to plant trees of the striped strain 

 of LIcIntosh, he should in.mediately graft them over to a desired 



