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the professional staff ^ as vrell it shoiild for all teaching either resident or Exten- 

 sion must be based on the findings of research if progress is to be made in solving 

 the marry problems of the industry. For your information the Pomology Research Pro- 

 jects now under T/ay are listed below: 



1, Analysis of the market quality of Mcintosh apples offered for sale in re- 

 tail stores » 



2, Influence of chemical treatment on flowering and fruiting of fruit trees, 

 3« The nutrition of apple trees g 



h* The natiire of winter hardiness in the raspberry, 



5, Highbush blueberry cultxire, 



6, A study of the leaf characters of tree fruit, varieties* 



7, A study of new varieties of fruits, 

 8» Improvement of the lowbush blueberry, 



9o Chemical control of weeds in fruit plantings, 



10, The influence of orchard and post-harvest treatments on the metabolism of 

 tree fruits » 



11, The evaluation of root stocks for tree fruits, 



12, The best method of improving the soil preceding the planting of strav/berries, 

 13 The development and production of healthy stravfberiy plants, 



111, The cause of unfruitfulness in the beach plum. 



During the next several months \ve plan to have the leader of each project write 

 a brief story that irill tell you why each particular project was started and what re- 

 sults have been attained so far. These project stories will appear under the heading 

 of POMOLOGICAL RESEARCH, For the first such report, which follows, we have chosen 

 to present a project so new that no results ^rom it are yet available, Hovrever, we 

 are confident that this problem concerns the entire apple industry, 



A,PeFrench 



* * * ^- % ■!!- * -K- ■),<■ -^'■•■j;- -K- -JS- 



POMOLOGICAL RESEARCH 



I, A Survey of Mcintosh Apples In Retail Stores - Ever since the Mcintosh 

 variety became a prominent item on the fruit counters in retail stores there has 

 been discontent, on the part of growers and others interested in the sale of Mcintosh, 

 with the product which has been offered to consumers. This feeling of discontent 

 has been based chiefly on casual observations rather than on factual information crn- 

 cerning the condition of the fruit » 



In order to determine more exactly the quality of Mcintosh apples which are 

 being offered to the public in retail stores, the Pomology Department in coopera1±)n 

 with Professor F, E. Cole, Extension Specialist in Fruit and Vegetable iilarketing, 

 has initiated a research project to study this situation* 



Since nothing of this type has ever been done in Massachusetts, the first step 

 appeared to be to make a survey of the condition of Mcintosh apples offered for sale 

 in retail stores. The particular aim of this survey is to determine what the condi- 

 tion of Mcintosh apples really is and whether or not present practices could be im- 

 proved in order to make the fruit more appealing to consumers and thereby increase 

 sales 3 



Starting the last week in October, after most of the "hurricane apples" had 

 begndisposed of, the writer has been travelling around the State purchasing samples 



