-6- 



a beautiful hedge as one of my losses. On the northern slope I have had crops 

 every year, and good ones too, until this year.' I find that very few rasp- 

 berries around the county lived over last winter." 



Pointers fr om the Maryland Summer Meeting 



IrTa recent News Letter issued by A. F. Vierheller, Extension Horti- 

 culturist in Maryland, vre note these points of interest: (1) In a terraced 

 peach orchard at Smithsburg, Md., bait pails are being used as one means of 

 controlling Oriental fruit moth. A mixture of lignin pitch and terpinyl ace- 

 tate is placed in quart engine oil cans, using 8 to the acre. (2) New cover 

 crop plants under test shov; Reed Canary Grass and Tall Oat Grass as promising 

 for' grov.'ing mulch material outside the orchard. (3) Concerning the use of ethy- 

 lene dichloride for peach borer control, the vnriter says, "It is necessary to 

 tamp all soil cracks around the trunk, then pour the proper amount of material, 

 diluted according to directions for tree age, on the soil around the base of the 

 tree and not on the tree trunk. (4) C. P. Harley says that water core in apples 

 is due to high temperature causing hydrolysis of starch, thus increasing osmotic 

 pressure in the cells, causing them to rupture. If the leaves are well supplied 

 v/ith nitrogen they build up starch much faster and if high temperatures occur, 

 water core results. In short, the apple cells become "droimed out." 



More About Ethylene Dichloride Emulsion 



Ethylene dichloride emulsion looked very promising as a control for 

 peach tree borers when it was first introduced. It still looks promising. But 

 the number of reports of iQjury following its use indicate that it is still in 

 the experimental stage. Most cases of injury have been traced to careless prep- 

 aration or application of the emulsion. In other ;vords, it hasn't yet been made 

 "foolproof." On the other hand, injury has sometimes resulted where everything 

 seems to have been done according to directions. These few cases suggest that 

 some factors such as varietal differences, condition of the trees, or soil type 

 may be involved. 



Further reports on the use of this material have come from M^^chigan, 

 New Jersey and New York. The Michigan Experiment Station has tried ethylene 

 dichloride emulsion in various parts of that state during the past three years 

 without observing injury anywhere. But several Michigan growers had very se- 

 vere injury to a large number of trees as a result of the application of this 

 material in the fall of 1940. One grov.'er severely damaged 3,000 out of 4,000 

 3-year old trees. The injury appeared in the form of dead areas on the roots 

 four to six inches below the ground level. This is not like the usual form of 

 winter injury in Michigan, v;hich appears at or very near the soil level. 



M. A. Blake, in recent issues of the New Jersey State Horticultural 

 Society News, reports on injury vdiich occurred on the Experiment Station grounds 

 at New Brunswick. Some 3-year old seedling peach trees were treated v/ith ethy- 

 lene dichloride emulsion in October. A short time later some of these trees 

 showed evidence of severe injury. Professor Blake described the injury as fol- 

 lows: Severe injury from this chemical in the form of brovmed cambium and 

 inner bark of the main trunk near the soil appeared on a few trees a few days 

 after the treatment. The affected area extended upward towards the branches. 

 By mid-winter the brown bark of severely injured trees could be detected at 

 some distance. VyTiile injury was relatively light, the inner bark and cambium 

 were only slightly discolored. In the more mild cases the discoloration was 

 yellowish and the tissue of the inner bark appeared more spongy than normal. 



