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July 20, 1943 



Prepared by the Fruit Prograjii Comiaittee 

 of the Extension Service 



TiY. H. Thies, Extension Horticulturist 



Contents: lieditation on ¥/eeds 



"The First Day on a Farn" 



Do You Know? 



Seen and Heard in the Field 



Production in a 45-Year-Old Apple Orchard 



Unscrambling Variety Puzzles in the Nursery 



Magnesiun Deficiency 



Harvest Sprays and Dusts 



Ilodified Recipes Y^ill Save Su^^ar 



LED IT AT ION Oil TOEDS (A Borrowed Editorial) 



It is estimated that there are more than 25,000,000 Victory Gardens 

 in the United States worthy of the name. Doubtless there are nearly as many 

 more which the official tabulators - a snooty race at best - consider it un- 

 dignified to count, though their owners would want to put in a good word for 

 then in the Shakespearean vein of "a poor thing, but mine ovm." 



The figure is important, now that the season of thriving weeds has 

 arrived. It will explain a vast change v^fhich will be noticed in American char- 

 acter these coming months. Nothing converts one to philosophy like a lusty 

 crop of vdtch grass in the com or on eager host of pussley in the onion patch. 



Bugs are a challenge to war. Weeds, developing their growth unobtrusive- 

 ly, call out the virtue in a nan. Over them he meditates upon the newer con- 

 . cepts of space and time. They inveigle him into botanical surmises, school 

 his temper, harden his will, stain his fingers, tutor him in the lore of a 

 backache, in'struct him in the art of hoeing, and send him to Hesiod for solace 

 when all is done. Pie is not ai.iazed to learn that there are more than 2,000,000 

 different kinds of plants. He can verify the figure himselfl How much calmer 

 we shall all be by Autumn! 



Issued by the Extension Service in furtherance of Acts of Jiay 8 oiid June 30, 

 1914, Willard A. Munson, director, Llassachusetts State College, United States 

 Department of Agriculturo, and County Extension Services cooperating. 



