Ac cjjd_eiybjj._ _IH_s_c.ov^erx j^r. i^^^^ Several years ago U.S.D.A. 



workers, studying the rosetto disease of pecans, sprayed trees with a cer- 

 tain solution and the results ;_;ro7ed very encouraging. Repeated, the treat- 

 ment failed until the workers checked bad: and recalled that the first spray 

 uatericls had been irized in a j^alvanized pail, fhe benefit, it later de- 

 veloped, ca"ie from the zinc dissolved fron the coating on the pail. Jin 

 impurity in the spray rlxture had actually cured the disease <ind further 

 reseai-cli developed practical uiethods of applying zinc as a tonic in pecan 

 orchsards, 



J^^esultG o_f^ BorsLX^ freatn_e_nt_s_ i-}\ S'&ytJ.PJ'KP:}'.?^^' ^^ ^ series of 17 tests 

 with bora:: for the control of internal cork in New York State, the results 

 are extremely favorable. Untreated trees in these orchea-ds showed an aver- 

 age of fron 25 to 69^1, cork. In 12 of the above orchards, trees treated 

 with borax last spring showed absolutely no cork. Three others showed less 

 than .3;=. In the one orchard v;hich shov;ed 10.4/o cork in the treated trees 

 as against 58. 4/^ in tlie untreated trees, the borax was not applied until 

 June 30 at which tine the syraptonis had already appeared. 



Appl e Eaters Live Longer. According to Better Fruit, the average bo}- in 

 the State of V/ashington v;ho ^rows up eating apples has a life expectancy 

 tv/o yecU's greater than the average Araerican boy. \7ith girls, it's a four 

 year advantage in favor of \7ashington. L'othing is said about eating Ilas- 

 sachusetts apples. But the reader nay draw his o\m conclusions. 



Johnny Appleseed a nd Fathe r Du n^j ean . The story of Johnny Appleseed and his 

 efforts in starting apple trees in the Laddie \7est before the Civil War is 

 well known. Airple growing in the I'lorthwest seems to have an oven earlier 

 origin. About 1828 a French priest, Father Dunjeaxi, crossed the Rocky 

 fountain divide and travelled down the Snake River to the Columbia. He, 

 too, carried in addition to his Bible, a bag of apple seeds which he planted 

 along the rivers in what is nov; IdEilio, Oregon and V/ashington. SOi-ie of his 

 trees survived, according to the story, and suggested to later .-^aerican 

 settlors that the Yakinia, V/onatchoe and other dry valleys, supplied with 

 v/ator, v;ould yield bountiful crops. 



yjliy Woeds. Thriye. It has been found that riany weeds require less moisture 

 than crop plants, which accounts for their persistence during dry spells. 

 Russian thistle, for exaiiiple, needs to absorb only 221 pounds of water from 

 the soil to produce one pound of dry natter. I.iarquis wheat needs 355 pounds, 

 flax needs 700 pounds, while Grii-.r.i alfalfa needs about 300 pounds for each 

 pound of dry riatter produced. 



^2 t_ej=uT j3aj: h_ f _o r_ Pxer wiiit j^i^iii^^ Live stean: from a portable steam 

 boiler mounted on a truck has been used successfully in California to kill 

 over-vdntering codling moth larvae on pear trees. Eighty percent of the 

 larvae v/hich hide beneath bark on the trunks and larger linos are killed 

 by the steaci bath without injuring the tree. Heretofore, this has been a 

 knotty problem since the pear tree grows a tough, corky bark v/hich is very 

 difficult to scrape off in preparation for the use of cher.iically treated 

 bands. The stean bath apparently takes the place of both the scraping and 

 the bands. 



