■6- 



nagnesiun deficiency. The soil is strongly acid and lacking in organic matter. 

 Leaf analyses show very littlo potash. An old orchard was removed before the 

 present trees were set. The young trees will undoubtedly respond to a program 

 of soil improvement including an application of dolomitic limestone and a com- 

 plete fertilizer. Other possibilities are stable manure and heavy mulching. 

 Or as one individual remarked, "Jack up the trees and put some soil under them." 



Strawberry crown girdlers invade a house . At a recent twilight meet- 

 ing a grower referred to a particular "beetle which he had found in considerable 

 numbers in his house. He had no difficulty in capturing half a dozen which 

 he mailpd to the State College for identification. They proved to be the Straw- 

 berry Crown Girdler, which has a habit of seeking shelter in houses. 



A good ide a, except - At another meeting a grower said that he had seen 

 many curculio beetles feeding on dock leaves in his orchard and wondered if this 

 pest might be poisoned there instead of in the trees. There seems to be only 

 one thing wrong v;ith the idea. The insect in question is definitely not cur- 

 culio. 



Apple maggot and cold storage, V^e hesitate to waste the time of readers 

 of Fruit Notes with this one, but it provoked some discussion at a twilight meet- 

 ing. It was offored by the ovmer of an orchard whose standards in pest control 

 may be judged by the fact that his first spray for scab was applied after bloom. 

 He claims to prevent apple maggot dtoaage in vdnter apples by placing them prompt- 

 ly in cold storage. The truth of the matter is that most of the maggots fail to 

 survive very long anyvmy in a hard apple and even though they are destroyed 

 within a few days or a month at most by cold storage temperatures the apple 

 still bears the telltale tunnels, and from a grading standpoint is "railroady" 

 or maggot infested. The storage idea is not nev;. In fact, it has been care- 

 fully investigated to determine the effect of sold storage on this unwelcome 

 summer visitor. (\7e shall continue to recommend poisoning the fly instead of 

 freezing the maggot.) 



PRODUCTION IN A 45- YEAR-OLD APPLE ORCHARD 



A row of eleven 45-year-old Mcintosh apple trees in a State College 

 orchard has been cut down, , not because the trees were no longer producing profit- 

 able crops but because they were expensive to maintain, the fruit was somev/hat 

 inferior in color ond the land was needed for a new planting more suitable for 

 modern research work. The crop in 1942 was the second largest in the life of 

 the orchard. 



Records of the yield of these Mcintosh trees from 1920 to 1942 inclusive, 

 have been kept. The average annual yield of the 11 trees from the 22nd to the 

 45th year v/as 25.4 bushels per tree or 686 bushels per acre of 27 trees. The 

 prize tree produced 88 bushels in 1939 and averaged 38 bushels per year or 

 1064 bushels per acre for the 23 years j the lowest yield from a permanent treo 

 was 23 bushels, or 621 bushels per aero. Tv/o of the 11 trees were replaced dur- 



