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Summary 



The strawberry industry has suffered because of competition 

 from other countries where harvest is earlier and/or the berries 

 can be produced at less cost. Therefore, the Dutch strawberry 

 grower must be a perfectionist and as efficient as possible to 

 survive. 



Striking differences exist between the Netherlands and Massa- 

 chusetts in regard to planting season and techniques used to ad- 

 vance or delay harvest, and method of sale. Berries are harvested 

 from April until the first heavy frost in the fall; April, from 

 heated greenhouses; May, from cold greenhouses; early June, from 

 cold frames and plastic tunnels; mid-June to early July, from June- 

 bearing varieties; late July to early September, from June-bearing 

 varieties from cold storage; and after early-August to frost, from 

 everbearing varieties. 



The majority of fruit produced for fresh fruit use is sold 

 through auctions and about 601 of the total production is processed, 

 Strawberries in Massachusetts are produced for the fresh fruit mar- 

 ket and the majority of these are sold by the "pick-your-own" meth- 

 od of sale. This method of sale also warrants investigation in the 

 Netherlands . 



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REDUCED SPRAYING FOR APPLE INSECTS AND MITES: 

 RESULTS FROM MICHIGAN AND NORTH CAROLINA 



Ronald J. Prokopy 

 Department of Entomology 



In the last issue of Fruit Notes, I discussed an article by 

 Dr. Harold Madsen and colleagues wherein the number of sprays in 

 orchards in British Columbia, Canada was reduced from 8 in 1972 to 

 3 in 1974 without increase in insect or mite injury to the fruit 

 or foliage. This spray reduction was made possible by employing 

 techniques for detecting and monitoring populations of those insect 

 and mite species known to cause injury in British Columbia apple 

 orchards and by spraying only when such species were found to 

 occur in numbers sufficient to cause economic injury. 



In this issue of Fruit Notes, I will discuss reports on re- 

 duced spray programs for mites in Michigan and North Carolina. 

 The reports are by Drs. Brian Croft and George Rock, respectively, 

 and appeared in the recently published proceedings of a symposium 

 on integrated control of orchard pests held in Bolzano, Italy in 

 September, 1974. Both reports show how it has been possible to 



