-8- 



f-r l-ng tino fiold exporimfcnts. The valua und the limit-^ti^ns ^.f both 

 Sv.il tosts w.nd ^f fiold exi.trinc;nts ure t'-duy well recognizod. Dr. ^IrAl 

 Tru^g says, "It is the duty of ull -agronomists to preach the doctrine th-t 

 thcj L'icij^r pl::.nt nutrionts removed from the soil by crops must be returned, 

 pound for pound, in the forr.. of crop residues, animal manure, or commercial 

 fertilizers if soil fertility is to be maintained". 



Should the Fruit Keeper Keep Seos? 



Mid-winter may be a little oarly for bee activity but not too 

 eurly to be thinking about blossoming time and the important role of the 

 busy beo. I doubt if -sven a quarter of the fruit growers Vifill over become 

 expert beekeopers. Maybe it's because they've had the experience of getting 

 stung in other ways. But something like 99/ of our fruit growers are con- 

 vinced th-t good yields are associo.ted with bee activity at blossoming time. 

 Of course, if »ve could b.ink on having two or three days of warm weather 

 wlien both v/ild bees and honey bees fly for long distances, we'd quit worry- 

 ing u^bout getting pollination in our individual orchard, dvon a solid 10- 

 acre block of Mcintosh might set a full crop under those conditions. Pro- 

 vision for cross pollination is largely a m^^tter of insurance to take care 

 of the Season with a few r^iiny dciys during bloom, and with bee flight 

 limited to a few hours. Here is v/hero ^ tree of good pollino^ting variety 

 next to every Mcintosh, and a strong colony of bees per acre are most 

 likely to pay dividen'.tj. The grower should first of all provide the variety 

 arrangement to take care of the unusual season. And if he doesn't care to 

 master the details of handling bees himself, then he should make such 

 arrangements as will insure plenty of beesin the orchard itself. V/e need 

 even closer cooperc.tion between beekeepers and fruit growers in Massachusetts. 



A Mouse Check Up 



President John iii. Rice of the M. F. G. a. reports an interesting 

 observation in his orchard in iviarlboro. In going through tne orchard after 

 tne new zinc phespnide bait nad been distributed, plenty of mouse runs were 

 still to be seen in the snow. This made it appear tnat the bait was ineffective. 

 A hurried call to u . ..'. Dykstra in v.orcester and a check up of tne hdce in 

 tne orchard revealed this interesting fact. The mice responsible for making 

 tne runs v;ere not tne kind of mice that deiri-age orcnard trees, and were not 

 apparently interested in tne poison bait. A check up of this kind in every 

 orchard v/here mice are preaent may save trouble and expense of bridge graft- 

 ing later on. 



In the February Issue 



In the next issue of fruit noteo a resume of another of the interest- 

 ing talks at the recent K. F. G. a. meetings, will be included. 'We shall 

 also include some ochoes from the Rochester meetings of the New York State 

 Horticultural Society. 



