After much study, Fermate, an organic fungicide, is now being offered 

 as a substitute for sulfur. It is a fluffy, black powder. The directions for 

 use call for l/2 to 1 l/2 pounds of Fermate to 100 gallons of water arid at 

 this rate of use the price is equal to sulfur. It is reported to be twice as 

 toxic to fungus spores and in this season's use on Starking at Gleasondale it 

 did not cause any fruit russeting. The Hew York (Geneva) Station has reported 

 that Fermate controlled scab on Mcintosh as viell as the dry v/ettables and that 

 no injury resulted from its use with oil and fixed nicotine on Baldv;in. Also, 

 Fermate gave perfect control of cedar apple rust against only 50^;,^ control v/ith 

 wettable sulfur, 



Fermate is reported to leave no objectionable residue on the fruit 

 and this feature should make its use valuable in some seasons prior to harvest 

 as a protection against lat>'; infections of brown rot, scab, etc. 



On the basis of this year's work in Massachusetts, the substitution 

 of Fei-mate appears to be the answer to most of the russet problem on Delicious 

 and other russet susceptible vt^rioti';s^^here a spraying program is follov/od. 

 There v/as not enough scab or codar apple rust in tho trees not sprayed with 

 fungicide in our test to pass uny judg-.ient on its fungicidal valuu, 



E. F. Guba 



DO YOU Ki.'gv 



That a single weed plant may produce more than half a million sneds? 

 One plant of hedge mustard is capable of producing enough seed to sow, if 

 evenly scattered, 11 soods on fivory squar:; foot in an aero of land, or enough 

 to sow 3,200 seeds on every acre of a 160 acre farm. In a study of the fol- 

 lowing weed plants - v.'ild Inttuce, tumble weed, purslane,fl6abane, and hedge 

 mustard - seed numbers of individual plants v;ore found to range from 52,700 to 

 511,208. 



That the element Magnesium enters into the composition of chlorophyll, 

 the i^reen coloring matter in plants? The molecule of chlorophyll component A, 

 a blue-black compound, has this complicated makeup: Carbon55lIydro2en72Cx2/'Gen5 

 Nitrogen4Magnesiumi. Component B, a green-black compound, varies slightly in 

 its content of Hydrogen and Oxygen, 



That an apple ripens 10 times as fast at 85° F. as at 32°? As carbo- 

 hydrates are consumed in the ripening process, carbon dioxide is given off and 

 heat is generated. In terms of British Thermal . Units, a ton of apples at 32° 

 generates at least 660 B.T,U. per day while at 85° it generates at least 6,600 

 B.T,U. per day. 



apple 

 That a 2;^ in. /may shrink as much as 50Jo in the process of peeling and 

 coring, while a 3-| in, apple shrinks only 10 or 12^o7 



That the optimum soil acidity for blueberries is very near pH 4,57 

 R. C. Collison of the Geneva, N. Y, Agr. Exp. Sta. offers the following sug- 

 gestions for acidifying a sandy soil which is not sufficiently acid for the 

 grovj-ing of blueberries. He says, "Every ,1 pH over pH 4.5 will require ,075 



