is directly in line with our v;artime economy. It vrould be folly for the owner 

 of a good apple orchard to go into some other line of business and neglect the 

 orchard. The experienced fruit grov/er can make his greatest contribution to 

 the v;ar effort by taking the best possible care of his fruit planting. If 

 every fruit farm utilizes its resources to best advantage, there will be no 

 need of transporting from other producing areas, the Suits needed for home 

 consumption. Most of our needs along fruit lines can be supplied from the 

 New England area, 



¥/e are constantly being reminded that American farmers must produce 

 more food. From the standpoint of the fruit grower, this does not mean more 

 bushels, without regard to grade or quality. Yj'e already have too many "cull" 

 apples. In the writer's opinion, our job is to produce, not more apples, but 

 more good apples. Vie should aim to produce aji apple crop of which at least 

 905,0 wTrr"grade U.S. No. 1 or higher. Apples of lower grade are of doubtful 

 value, even in peacetime. They become a liability in v/artime when storage 

 facilities, packages, labor, etc., are scarce. Ii'^e ought not to clutter up 

 our markets or our storages v;ith fruit fit only for feeding to livestock. 



1/Vhat should be the attitude of the home gardener who is interested, 

 not in producing fruit for sale, but for the home table? Again it should be 

 pointed out that the owner of a small piece of land should concentrate first 

 on vegetables, and should expand to include small fruits only if garden space 

 and tiae are availile. Small fruits offer much more promise of success for 

 the backyard gardener, than tree fruits. We cannot afford to imste valuable 

 land, fertilizers, spray materials, etc., without reasonable assurance that 

 the investment will produce something of real value. The producer of fruits 

 for home use should consider very carefully the factors upon which success 

 in the hone fruit planting depends. Patriotism does not demand that we spend 

 time and money in trying to produce usable apples on an old tall tree, when 

 the same area might produce an abundance of strawberries or of vegetables 

 with less expense. 



Massachusetts fruit growers are doing more long time planning than 

 ever before in order to economize on labor, materials, aaid equipment. The 

 food production program will be a success from both the commercial and the 

 home garden standpoint if we limit ourselves to those food crops v/ithin reach 

 of our available resources. By so doing, the fruit grovrer will make his 

 biggest contribution to the national food production program. 



ORCHARDS DAI'JAGEU BY SEVERE WINTER VJEATHER 



If a definite relationship between winter temperatures aind injury in 

 plant tissues were to exist, we v/ould expect heavy damage in Massachusetts or- 

 chards as a result of the near record cold spell around February 16. The 

 extent of injury, hovrever, is dependent upon the maturity of the tissues and 

 perhaps upon the date and duration of the damaging temperatures. The injury 

 in Baldwin trees this winter, although very noticeable, does not seem to be 

 as severe as in the winter of 1933-34. A partial killing of the sapwood is 

 apparently more common than damage to the bark and canibiura. As more Baldwin 

 trees are examined we are finding considerable brovming of the sapvrood, par- 

 ticularly in the lovrer limbs. In most trees, hov/ever, there seeias to be enough 



