countered this season, judging from the fairly heavy first brood, is a severe 

 infestation of leaf hopper around the last of August or first of Septenber. Ap- 

 plication of a contact insecticide such as nicotine at that time has proven highly 

 successful in combatting this insect which is responsible for not only mottled 

 leaves but unsightly fruit at harvest time. 



Another em.ergency which may require later spraying is a severe infesta- 

 tion of red mite. Ordinary soap in the form of soap flakes may be used, although 

 a potash fish oil soap is not only effective but somewhat easier to use. This ma- 

 terial is applied at the rate of 1^ gallons per 100= Your local dealer in spray 

 raa.terials should bo able to supply this material. If not, details may be obtained 

 from tho Field Station at Vfaltham or the State College in Amherst. A third use for 

 the sprayer will be found this fall in some orc?iards in the application of the 

 new hormone which tends to prevent Mcintosh from dropping. As suggested elsewhere 

 in this issue this material should not be applied until the apples have actually 

 started to drop. Growers with an apple scab problem are advised by 0. C. Boyd, 

 Extension Pathologist, to make a raid-August application of sulfur dust to prevent 

 infection of the fruit. 



Time to Begin Pic k ing Up iilaggot Infested Drops . 



V/ith apple maggot flies laying eggs, the time has arrived for gathering 

 up infested apples as one moans of controlling this pest. Every apple maggot des- 

 troyed this sunmer v/ill mean one less fly to attack the fruit in 1941. Kiaggot in- 

 fested apples should bo gathered up regularly at least once a week (twice a week 

 is better) and treated in such way that the maggots are destroyed. Such fruit 

 may be fed to live stock, made into cider, or emptied on an area which has pre- 

 viously been saturated with waste crankcase oil. Apples of tho summer and fall 

 season are more important from tho standpoint of maggot control than hard, ^/vinter 

 varieties. It apparently doos littlo good to pick up drops in Soptombcr and Octo- 

 ber unless the August drops are also givon attention 



A'ople Tree Survey Noars Completion . 



The first 400 orchard schedules in the Massachusetts apple tree survey 

 have now been summarized. These orchards contain 238,000 trees and produced, in 

 1939, about 700,000 bushels of apples. Tliis represents approximately one-quarter 

 of the commercial apple industry in Massachusetts. 



The variety distribution of permanent trees in these 400 orchards is 

 as follov/S£ Mcintosh 42.1/^, Baldvdn 27.5/^, Delicious 5.2/^, Cortland 3.7/o, Graven- 

 stein 3A%, Wealthy 3.3%, Northern Spy 3.8^, and other varieties 11>. Tliat we 

 are gradually becoming a "one variety" section is borne out by these figures. 

 Vi/hen the previous survey was taken iji 1925, about 25/i of our apple trees were of 

 the Mcintosh variety and iO% were/the Baldvdn variety. Today this situation is 

 reversed. The age distribution of trees shows 19.5/^ of the Hclntosh to be under 

 10 years of age and ll/-, of the Baldvdns in the same age group. In other v/ords we 

 have barely enough young Mcintosh trees to maintain that variety and fov;or still 

 of other varieties. 



A total of 1S16 schedules covering orchards of 100 trees or more had 

 been received at the State College on July 25. Enough more schedules are expect- 

 ed mthin a few days to bring the number up to about 1700 as compared vdth the 

 1754 orchard surveys in 1925. 



A preliminary statei.^.ent from Connecticut covering about 75/o of the or- 

 chards in that State show that one-third of the comi'nercial crop is produced by 



