-5- 



RUSSETIIIG JF GOLDEN DELICI OUS 



The tendency of fruit of the Golden Delicious apple to russet is 

 one of the weaknesses of the variety. It makes the fruit less attractive 

 and is related to its tendency to shrivel in storage. Russeting seems to be 

 worse in the humid East than it is in the less humid or semi-arid regions 

 in the V/est. From Maine comes a suggestion that there may be another factor 

 involved. Observing differences in individual trees, scions from high russet- 

 trees v/ere grafted into trees with low russeting and vice versa. Under Maine 

 conditions there seemed to be a persistency in the new location, of the ten- 

 dency to russet. If yau have any individual Golden Delicious trees that seem 

 especially free from russet, the writer would be glad to know about it. It 

 would do no harm to propagate from such trees. j, j{. shaw 



RELATION BECTffiEN DATE OF BLOO M MD DATE OF HARVEST 



A recent discussion of the time of ripening of fruit varieties 

 advances the idea that the date of full bloom gives a basis of calculating 

 the date of harvest. The data for some of our principal varieties are as 

 follows; 



Days from Bloom to Harvest 

 Shortest Longest Average 



Baldwin 134 138 135 



Cortland 125 130 128 



Delicious- 129 134 132 



Early Mcintosh 88 94 90 



Golden Delicious l32 140 138 



Gravanstein 110 120 114 



Mcintosh 124 129 127 



Northern Spy 138 144 143 



V;ealthy 103 116 109 



This means that Baldwin, for example, will be ready to pick about 

 135 days after full bloom. Doubtless summer temperatures and cultural con- 

 ditions modify this interval; a season warmer than usual v>rill shorten this 

 period and high nitrogen v;ill lengthen it. These data are for Geneva, Nev/ 

 York. The interval may differ somewhat for Massachusetts and would not be 

 exactly the same for different parts of the State. Hoivever, it seems worth 

 v/hile for a fruit grower to note the date of full bloom and consider it in 

 planning the date of harvest. j, Yi. Shaw 



PLANNING FOR THE NIT.T ORCIiARD 



If you are planning to set a new orchard this spring, the first 

 thing to do is to see that the site and soil are suitable. Since this is 

 a fairly long-time investment that you are about to make, these two points 

 are highly important. Second, why not consider contour planting of the 

 orchard? 



There are several possible advantages of contour planting of or- 

 chards and, frankly, one or more disadvantages. Among the advantages are 



