A Pion e er's I mpress ion s of ou r Nati ve Fruits * 



'ilhen the ship Arabella arrived at Salem in the suraner of 1530, people 

 went ashore and regaled themselves with strawberries. Roger Williams declared 

 the strawberry to be "the \?onder of all the fruits growing naturally hereabouts" 

 and says that v/here the natives had plajited he had seen "within a few miles as 

 iiiaay as would fill a good ship." 



William VJood, in this country from 1529 to 1533, says "one may gather 

 halfe a bushell in a forenoone." In "New England's Prospect" (the earliest agri- 

 cultural account of Mass.) he likewise testifies to the excellence of the native 

 grapes "which are very bigge, both for the grape and the cluster, sweet and good." 

 But he is not so enthusiastic about the cherries. He says, "They be much smaller 

 than our English cherry, and if they be not fully ripe, they so furre the mouth 

 that the tongue will cleave to tho roof and the throat wax hoarse with swallowing 

 them. English ordering may bring them to bo an English chorrie, but yet thoy arc 

 as valdo as tho Indians." (I'Jaybc he got a mouthful of chokcchcrrios.) 



The Apple Maggot Situation. 



Growers sometimes say that the recommended timing of maggot sprays and 

 dusts does not seem to conform v/ith the appearance of flies in the orchard. How 

 often v;e hear someone remark, "I saw no flies until the middle of August." There 

 is, of course, a possibility that the grower may not have seen the flies v/hen 

 they first appeared in his orchard, but there is one other possibility. V/e knov; 

 that maggot flies migrate from one tree to another. Rolativcly fov/or flies omor^e 

 in a v/cll sprayod orchard of Baldwin or other coi:miercial variety than from the 

 soil beneath earlier varieties or beneath neglected trees on adjacent property. 

 In other words, the problem of migrating flies is often overlooked. The sudden 

 appearance of flies in a Mcintosh tree around the middle of August may mean that 

 those flies caaie from a Yellow Transparent or Astrachan tree where fruit is no 

 longer available. They may also represent flies which have com.e from a more dis- 

 tant biennial bearing tree which was infested with maggot last season. We would 

 not dismiss tho likelihood that miany flics emerge from the orchard soil long af- 

 ter tho month of July, but wo would stress the absolute necessity of doing more 

 about these other sources of infestation which so often pass unnoticed. 



In Massachusetts we pride ourselves on being able to hold in check a 

 troublesome, late season pest v/ithout leaving an excessive residue on the harvest- 

 ed fruit. This is entirely possible by follovidng the recommended spray schedule, 

 spraying or dusting up to the last of July, along vdth proper attention to all 

 other apple trees v;ithin 200 yards of the orchard and the prompt destruction of 

 maggot infested drops. We therefore have avoided advising growers to spray "when 

 you sec tho f lios" . If that wero followed literally it might moan using load 

 arsonato aftor tho first of Scptombor. We recognize, of course, tho almost help- 

 less onvironmont of som.o coimnorcial orchards. This only emphasizes tho nood for 

 thorough spraying up to the last of July, and the treatment of adjacent trees, 

 suggested above. Occasionally maggot flies may emerge too late to be reached by 

 a spray progreun. But such an occurrence ought not to serve as a blanket alibi 

 for all cases of maggot infestation. 



Sha ll Wo Put Away the Sprayer for the Seas on? 



V/e like to think of August 1 as the dead lino for orchard spraying in 

 Massachusetts, although conditions may require some spraying or dusting r.ftcr 

 that date to take cere of certain emergencies. One problem v/hich may bo en«- 



