-3- 



to all forms of animal life, proper caution should be obaer-^ed vrtiAn handling 

 it. Therefore, it is inadvisable for anyone except experienced technical 

 personnel to attempt to handle liquid methyl bromide without first having 

 attended a demonstration in its use. The use of trapping, poisoning, and 

 even, proofing the storage has not been entirely satisfactory because ro- 

 dents are carried in with the fruit or enter the storage through doors or 

 chutes. It is significant, therefore » that this method of exterminating 

 destructive rodents in apple cold storages has considerable merit. Those 

 who have a rodent problem in their storage and wish to use this material 

 should communicate with Mr. Southwiok. 



— -Robert M. Borg, Biologist 



U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 



TfHEN ARE APPLES RIPE? 



Proper maturity for picking is vitally important to the apple grower, 

 for the storage life of the fruit as well as its eating quality are greatly 

 influenced by the stage of maturity at which it is picked. In the past, 

 three guides have been rather extensively usedt (1) Degree of yellowing; 

 (2) firmness of the flesh; and (3) ease with which the apple may be detached 

 from the tree. Of late years, a fourth has been taking on increased im- 

 portance—elapsed time from full bloom* 



Dr. Mark H. Haller, associate pomologist. Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, has recently completed an exhaustive 

 check of these guides over a period of half a dozen years in the principal 

 apple-growing sections of the country. He concludes that the growers have 

 been leaning oil rather frail reeds in picking-maturity guides. 



The value of the yellowing or ground color guide, for example, has 

 been considerably weakened by the increasing use of red strains that develop 

 color before they are fully mature. Too, some of the standard varieties, 

 under conditions favorable for red color development, color up enough to 

 mask the .groxind color before the apples are fully ripe. Firmness of flesh 

 is hardly a safe guide, Haller argues, since pressure tests indicate that 

 the range at which maturity is reached is too great and the softening too 

 gradual. And the accuracy of the ease-of-separating guide has been lessened 

 by the introduction of harvest sprays to prevent fruit drop. 



It appears, however, that the number of days from bloom to maturity 

 offers a relatively safe guide. For example, the number of days from bloom 

 to Sfitlsfactory maturity for Delicious ajid Starking apples was found to be 

 about 150, regardless of whether the apples were gi^wn in Vfashington, Oregon, 

 Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New York, or Maryland. Similar data are being 

 obtained to show the best picking dates for the principal commercial apple 

 varieties. 



WANTED - An orchard where trees are being removed by mesms of 

 a bulldorer. We want to get some movie shots of this method 

 of tree removal which it becoming increasingly popular in 

 Massachusetts orchards. 



