-9- 



It may be said, if this is any comfort to you, that hclntosh drop this 

 fall was as serious, if not more so, in all northeastern iiclntosh growing 

 areas as it was in Massachusetts, I have cori"espondence from people in 

 New York stating that losses in parts of the Hudson Valley and VJestem New 

 York were as high as 60 per cent of the total crop. Apparently idclntosh 

 drop in i ichigan was severe, also. 



Some things which stand out about the Mcintosh drop this year are that 

 the drop started earlier than usual and that the early drop vras unusually 

 heavy. Generally, in Massachusetts a few apples commenced to drop around 

 the 8th to the 12th of September and as the season progressed the drop 

 intensified. This year the drop started off with a "bang" * By the 12th of 

 September, 1955 in one orchard where we had an experiment underway, over 

 1^% of the crop had already fallen from non-hormone sprayed trees. By the 

 23rd day of the month 6$% of the crop on such trees had fallen. I am in- 

 clined to think that two major factors were involved. First, we had a 

 tremendous crop of Mcintosh and I believe most growers recognize that a 

 heavy Mcintosh crop and heavy drop often go hand in hand unless we have 

 unusually cool weather in September, Also, we had an unusually hot July 

 and early August, with mean temperatures during this period about 6 degrees 

 above normal, perhaps the highest mean temperature for this period on record. 

 Such high temperatures may be expected to hasten ripening and advance the 

 maturity date. In other words, Mcintosh were perhaps 7 to 10 days ahead of 

 their average maturity date as far as firmness and ground color were con- 

 cerned but good red color did not develop until the usual time. Generally 

 speaking, ripe apples drop sooner than less mature fruits and this advanced 

 maturity may explain the heavy early drop. 



As you all knov;, many orchards suffered from foliage injury in varying 

 degree. This injury may have been due in part to the effects of the early 

 drought - trees carrying a heavy crop suffer inuch more from drought than 

 trees bearing a moderate or light crop. Also, mites and possibly nutritional 

 deficiencies may have accounted for considerable amounts of foliage damage. 

 It is well known that apples frequently "rain off" trees when the foliage as 

 injured. However, serious drop existed in many blocks where the foliage 

 appeared to be in excellent shape. 



Fortunately, we realized that this might be a good year to test stop- 

 drop materials and we had two experiments on Mcintosh going when growers 

 began to realize the seriousness of the drop. Unfortunately, however, we 

 had considerable confidence in 2,i;,5-TA as a stop-drop material for Mcintosh, 

 It had performed well in the past and had caused only slight ripening. 

 Consequently, we recommended its use on Mcintosh for those grovrers who vashed 

 to control drop for about 3 weeks. 



