-2- 



But now, creeping into the situation is a desire to set up standards which 

 will insure a product to the consumer which v.-ill result in complete satis- 

 faction and repeat orders; standards which will apply to quality from the 

 standpoint of flavor and use. 



"To be sure, some progress has already been made in singling out 

 the uses and best seasons of certain varieties, as the R. I. Greening apple 

 for cooking, the Delicious apple for eating out of hand, the Y.'ealthy apple 

 for Fall, the Mcintosh apple for late Fall and mid-Winter, and the Northern 

 Spy and Rome apples for Spring. Rut even this is not enough. Orange growers 

 are turning to standards of fruit quality as judged by acid content, sugar 

 content, and other analyzable internal fruit characters. This method auto- 

 matically rules out of the trade those varieties vrhich t-re of inferior qi.iality, 

 and prevents past- season, soft, unappetizing fruit from reaching the consumer. 



"It is a step in the right direction. It is quality that the con- 

 sumer v, ants and quality he must and will have, all the way from size and ap- 

 pearance clear through to condition, crispness, flavor, texture, and aroma. 

 This is the market of the future, and the ore v.iiich growers mast keep constantly 

 in mind if they are to hold their ovm and progress with the times and with the 

 competition from other fruits and other sections." 



Chokecherry Leaves Show Autumn Coloring 



Many Massachusetts roadsides cause the traveller to wonder if the 

 month is October instead of Auj.ust. Here and there we see a blaze of color 

 in chokecherries infected by X Disease. In some cases these plants are dan- 

 gerously near peach orcliards. These telltale signs in chokecherries should 

 be as effective as a red flag in w^arning peach growers about the menace of 

 this mysterious disease. 



Since 1731 vvhen Peach Yellows were finst recognized, virus diseases 

 of peaches have intrigued the scientist and worried the fruit grower. Follov/- 

 ing in the train of the Yellow^s has been an ever increasing list of virus 

 troubles, including the X Disease which was first noticed in Connecticut in 

 1933. The visible symptoms of X Disease on peach leaves may le easily recog- 

 nized. According to E. Li. Stoddard of the Connecticut Station, "About eight 

 or nine weeks after grovrth starts in the spring, part of t!ie foliage on an 

 infected tree suddenly will develop indefinite yellovf or light orainge areas 

 which rapidly increase in size and number until the entire leaf is involved. 

 V.'ith the progress of the disease the color intensifies, the yellov: and orange 

 become blended vdth red, and the leaf becomes stiff and brittle. Eventually 

 most of the foliage on the diseased branches will develop the characteristic 

 symptoms and drop with the exception of the tip leaves which rarely are shed. 



'H'.'hen the leaf symptoms appear, the fruit on the affected parts of 

 the tree usually shrivels and falls, or continues to hang on the tree as dried 

 up mummies. The disease does not appear necessarily over an entire tree at 

 once but may show at first only on a few twigs, or even on only one twig, 

 spreading irregularly over the tree in subsequent years. This habit often 

 makes it difficult to spot an infected tree in the orchard. The fact that 

 diseased peach trees alv/ays are associated with diseased chokecherries leads 

 to the conolusion that the chokecherry is the original offender. It is not 

 known by what means the disease is transmitted from chokecherry to peach but 

 it is supposed that the transmission is made by some insect vector vhioh has 

 not been discovered vet." 



