cnards located in low, frosty places. Failure to fruit from this cause is not 

 likely in successive years. 



4. Too heavy pruning . Severe pruning, especially heading back the 

 branches, will delay fruiting. The rer.edy is obvious. Prune only enough to 

 shape the tree and rid it of poorly located branches and bad forks, and do no 

 heading back. 



5. Faulty nutritive condition of the tree . Most of the obscure causes 

 of failure to bear belong here. The tree may be over-vigorous, but this cause 

 is less frequent than is commonly thought, yet it may occur with trees planted 

 in rich, moist soil. Allowing grass to grow around the treu and v/ithholdmg 

 manure and fertilizer will often induce such trees to form fruit buds. Removing 

 a ring of bark around the trunk or "scoring," that is cutting two or three rings 

 through the bark in late May or early June when the trees are just coming into 

 full foliage, is often effective. Lack of vigor may cause failure to bear. Cul- 

 tivation and fertilization with manure or 3 - 5 pounds of nitrate of soda or 10- 

 15 pounds of a complete fertilizer should benefit such trees. t^ v^ Shaw 



A Now Expe ri mental Apple Orchard . 



The Pomology Department has plctnted an orchard of 900 apple trees, mostly 

 on clonal stocks, to replace the stock and scion orchard removed a few years ago. 

 It is planned in a way that will provide information en a number of questions. 

 It involves not only the influence on coiiff.iOn Vc.rieties of some 16 clonal stocks, 

 but also on many nev/ varieties and red strains. Provision is made for some kind 

 of a fertilizer or cultura.1 test to be begun after a pt;riod of uniform treatment 

 to mtasure natural soil vt^riutions. T/Vhile the trees ;-.re not planted on contours, 

 the rows aro on ridges designed to prevent erosion und provide better growing 

 conditions. Varieties on each plot are randomized to compenst-te for soil va.ria- 

 tion. This will involve some inconvenience in mcn^gement but is now considered 

 essential in any field experiment. 



Another newly planted orchard of 55 trees replaces a Mcintosh orchard 

 used for comparison of mulch and cultivation, which v;as destroyed by the hurricane. 

 Vi/'e hope to obtain from these two orchards much new inform-tion on problems in 

 fruit growing. j. K. Shaw 



Y/intor Injury in Raspberries 



Many red raspberry varieties have suffered from winter killing again this 

 year. Just when the damage occurred is not known, but probably the sub.'Zero tem- 

 peratures of last November had considerable to do with it. Early cold weather 

 along i,vith late maturing of the c^nes, as happened last fall, is very apt to re- 

 sult in winter injury. Vc^rieties listed below are grouped according to the amount 

 of cane injury evident in the College plantation this spring. Chief, Luth;.im, 

 Ranere - little or no injury. Indian Summer, Cuthbert, Taylor - moderate injury. 

 l"'urcy - severe injury. Newburgh - very severe injury; killed back practically 

 to the ground. 



It is interesting to note that the rating of varieties for cold injury 

 this spring agrees Very closely vifith a simil^^r rating made a year ago. 



A. P. French 



Sod Conserve s Org -^nic Matter 



In a soil study covering 26 commeroiul orchards in Pennsylv_^ni^, peren- 

 nial sod covers were found to be very effective in conserving both organic matter 



