- 3 - . 



if available. It may be concentrated safely up to 3X, 

 li. If you want a good storage Liclntosh apple, pick the fruit vri. thin 2 weeks 

 of spraying, even though fruit is not dropping, to keep ripening effect 

 at a mlnimunit 

 $» If used to hasten ripening and improve color of early and midseason var- 

 ieties, apply about 3 weeks ahead of harvest date. Apples from trees 

 high in nitrogen vd.ll be ripened .uore than fruit from trees at lovrer^nitro- 

 gen levels, . Do not use 2,U,5~TP for inprovxng color on regular Gravenste'in, 

 DucKess, and Milton since color is not greatly improved and the fruit may 

 become mushy and worthless. It has been used for this purpose with some 

 success on Early kclntosh and V/ealthy, To hasten ripenin;: of late apples 

 ^PPly 5-6 weeks ahead of harvest. Beware of over-ripeness, splittinr, 

 and vmter-core when used as a ripene'r . The ripening effect is not uniform 

 over the entire tree* Some fruits v;ill be ripened much more than adjacent 

 fruits* 



General Comments i 



No hormone is effective for drop control if the foliage is in an urtiealthy con- 

 dition as a result of frost or mite injury. Also, trees suffering from magnesium or 

 potassium deficiencies "i^ll drop their fruit readily and hormones will not prevent it» 



F.W.Southvdck 



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Sheep in tlie Orchard - A group of sheepgrowers and f ruitgrovYers in v/orces- 

 ter County 'got together recently to talk over the question of rangin: sheep 

 in the apple orchard. Among the points brought out by one of the larger 

 sheepgrowers was the absence of mice in a closely grazed orchard and the 

 influence on insect control from the eating of drop appleS| also the fact 

 that no ill effects vrere apparent in the sheep where grass and leaves in 

 a sprayed orchard were consumed. He brought out the point tliat the bronvs- 

 ing of sheep on the lovrer branches would be less in evidence if the Iovt 

 hanging limbs vrere pruned off. Of course, no one would think of ranging 

 sheep in a young orchard since there is plenty of evidence that disastrous 

 results follow this practice. And in a bearing orchard, it would be im- 

 practical to have the trees headed sufficiently high to avoid brov/sing on 

 those branches which can be picked easily from the ground. Suppose one 

 were to prune off all lower branches which bend dovm to the ground under 

 a load of fruit. That v.-ould not solve the browsing problem because sheep 

 can reach to a height of about 3-1/2 feet. To eliminate all branches up 

 to that level in an orchard producing $00 bushels per acre wo'old greatly 

 reduce the proportion of apples easily sprayed and harvested. There is 

 also the question of losing the mulching; benefits where grass is closely 

 graaed. On some soil tjTpes, a heav:^' grass mulch brings important bene- 

 fits entirely apart from tlie nutritive materials in the grass itself, 



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