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NURSERY INSPECTION 



t Four members of the staff of the Massachusetts State College 

 uav« organized the Massachusetts Trueness-to-Name Inspection Service, 

 sponsored by the I;& ssachusetts Fruit Grov/ers' Association. The members 

 of the Service are J. K- Shav/, A. P. French, 0. C- Roberts, and L- South- 

 wick. This move implies no change in this work which has been carried on 

 for 24 years. It only gives it a name and the expressed approval of the 

 orgahized fruit growers of Massachusetts. 



The v/ork of examining nursery trees for trueness to name has 

 been completed for 1944. Several new nurseries have been examined and a 

 few Omitted examination for this year. Yftien a nursery has been examined 

 for two or three years, mixtures and misnamed trees are eliminated. How- 

 ever, new ones soon creep in, often among buds from bearing trees. Our 

 experience indicates that such buds are mixed quite as often as those cut 

 in the nursery. 



Ihe examination includes apple, pear, plum, sweet cherry, and 

 t.;o-year sour cherry; one-year sour cherry trees of certain varieties are 

 difficult to identify, hence, the desirability of waiting until they are 

 older, peach trees are examined j but, as it is difficult or impossible 

 to identify some varieties as nursery trees, examination of peach trees 

 is less satisfactory than that of other tree fruits. Nevertheless, a great 

 many mixtures and misnamed, peach trees are detected and corrected each year. 



Bulletins describing the young trees of apple, cherry, and plum 

 varieties have been prepared by the men of the Massachusetts Trueness-to- 

 Name Inspection Service and are available on request to the Massachusetts 

 Experiment Station. Bulletins on pears, blueberries, and raspberries are 

 in preparation. 



A list of the nurseries examined for trueness to name may be 

 obtained by sending a postal card to the Department of Pomology, Massachu- 

 setts State College, Amherst, Mass. 



J • K • Shaw 



CAN YOU AFFORD TO REMOVE SOl'.ffi OF YOUR TR EES? 



Many of our fruit growers have orchards in wiiich the trees are 

 too close together and find it hard to get up courage to thin them out 

 because of fear of reduced crops. A circular from the feshington State 

 Experiment Station gives some figures. 



s 



A liYinesap orchard planted in 1905, 106 trees to the acre, wa 

 thinned to 54 trees in 1925. In 1940 one-half of the remaining trees were 

 removed from one-half the orchard, leaving 27 trees per acre, and leaving 

 the other half with 54 trees per acre. Detailed records of costs, yields, 

 grades, returns and profits for the three years 1940-42 are reported. Acre 

 yields and expenses were reduced and grades improved by thinning. The fi- 

 nancial results vary \vith different methods of calculation used. A reason- 

 able way of figuring gives the following results^ 



