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■ji- The result? Tvto satisfied customers e They v/ent dovm 



-;(• the road^ each with a jug of detergent-sanitizing agenti 

 •K- The mill cv/ner rould like his containers back, but there is 

 •);- no return on the ctopperst 



D.T.Thayer 



Franklin County 

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SEEN AND HEARD IN THE FIEID 



Prolific Stravfberiy Plait - About the first of October some inusual strav/berry p] ants 

 of an unnamed variety vrere observed on the farm of Joseph Tielirg in Worth Middleboro. 

 The amazing thing vras the number of runner plants developing one after another, in 

 direct line, from a particular mother plant. The 9th runner plant, in one chain of 

 daughter plants, was just taking root at the time of our visit. Evidently, the first 

 daughter plant in that series had taken root very early, probably j.n late Hay, and 

 successive progeny had developed and rooted beyond that point at the rate of abcvt 

 tvro each month. This may be some sort of a record. It goes vjithout saying that these 

 are virus-free plants. 



Striking Results TJlth Trail Builder - Do meadov? mice enter and travel along a newly 

 made trail? The answer seems to te_p "Yes, if the trail intercepts the rur.ways already 

 in use". Hence the need for running the Trail Builder beneath the spread of the b^'snohes 

 instead of confining its use to the hard packed area midvray between the tre3s. In an 

 Essex Coimty orchard v;ith heavy grass cover a recent test of the Trail Builder shovfed 

 how promptly mice find their way into a nevfly made trail. As soon as a 200-foot sec- 

 tion of trail was completed, without baiting, 12 snap traps with small pieces of 

 apple attached were placed at intervals in the trail. Examination of the traps in 

 about half an hour revealed mice in two of them^ 



Mice Find Home Beneath Hurricane Damaged Trees - That the hurricanes created ideal 

 winter quarters for mice around the roots of apple trees is v;ell illustrated in what 

 happened at a recent demonstration. In the process of restoring to a vertical posi- 

 tion a tree Tdth badly damaged roots, a liberal amount of water vras forced in. around 

 the base of the tree from a power gjr^ero Three mice scurried out in less time than 

 it takes to say,"Microtus", They had moved into the new apartment v\rhere tunnels were 

 made to order and a food supply/al)^dant and close at hand. We commonly think of 

 Pine Mice as being solely responsible for root injury since they prefer tovrork under- 

 ground. But a disrupted root system permits Meadow Mice to feed at unexpectedly Iot; 

 levels \anless the open spaces are promptly filled and the tree securely anchored. 



Chemical Thinning of Baldv/ins - In the orchard of Ralph Roberts of Granville an ex- 

 tensive test of chemical thinning was carried out last season. Noting a very heavy 

 set, with several apples on practically every spur, all of the Baldwin trees but one 

 were given an application of naphthalene acetic acid shortly after the Calyx period. 

 At harvest time the ll bushels on the untreated tree were so small that they vrere 

 shaken off and made into cider. There were fevr apples as large as 2-1/2" e On the 

 treated trees the story is quite different. Of the first ^00 bushels graded out, only 

 6 bushels were belovi 2-lA" and there was a good proportion of apples in the 2-3/u" 

 to 3" class, Colorims also better on the- treated trees for obvious reasons, a better 

 leaf -fruit ratio and less shading from the mass of extra apples. YJhen chemical thin- 

 ning develops to the point where we have not only a decided increase in average size 

 of fruits in the "on year" but also some semblance of annual bearing in biennial var- 

 ieties, one of the biggest problems of the apple grower vdll be solved. 



