FRUIT NOT E^?®"^^ "^^l 

 Decenber 7, 1942 



Prepared by the Fruit Progran Conmittee 

 of the Extension Service 



Vr. H. Thies, Extension Horticulturist 



Contents 



Some Suggestions on Pruning 



Do You Know? 



Notes for Liinutemen 



Farm Machinery Repair Program 



Overhauling the Sprayer 



A Y/artime Program for Farmers 



Controlled Atmosphere Storage 



Some Vnays of Magnesiuiii Deficiency 



List of Topics in Fruit Notes During 1942 



sc:e suggj:gtic:js ok prunIiig 



The old idea that a tree should be thin enough to permit the owner to 

 "throw a cat through it" has long since been discarded. Vfhat we need in the 

 present emergency is a pruning program\'\hich will help to eliminate lov; grade 

 apples at the source. Vfe can do much to bolster up the 1943 spray prograjn 

 by (1) cutting out every other diagonal row where trees are beginning to crowd, 

 and (2) by a light tliirjaing of branches on the permanent trees. Labor for 

 spraying next summer nay be more scarce than we nov; find it for pruning. Vie 

 cannot afford to omit pruning entirely even under v/artime conditions. The 

 kind of pruning very much needed in most bearing apple orchards may be started 

 in December and continued through the winter, whenever v/eather permits. Let's 

 use e'/ery suitable day between now and spring in thinning out those vreak, 

 drooping branches and in pruning "at the ground level" the crowding fillers 

 and other trees of unwanted varieties. The cold v/inter of 1933-34 caused 

 severe damage to apple trees pruned heavily in December, 1933. This experience 

 prompts the recommendation that we delay until late winter or early spring any 

 heavy pruning which certain trees may require. But such trees are less common 

 than the trees v/hich need only a light pruning. Dead and broken branches as 

 well as shaded and submerged branches, may be removed any time during the viin- 

 ter. By spreading the pruning job over a 4-month period instead of trying to 

 do it all in March, v/e vdll help to increase the percentage of U. S. No. 1 

 apples. Anything below that grade is of doubtful value. 



Issued by the Extension S'-irvice, Vrillard A. Munson, Director, in furtherano 

 of Acts of Hay 8 and June 30, 1914, Massachusetts State College, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, and County Ext.msion Services cooperating. 



