334 Fruit-growing in Arid Regions 



pear produces fruit that is hardly worth the effort required 

 to keep it free from worms. 



Forecast of the Probable Crop 



Whether to spray or not to spray for codlin-moth the 

 grower must decide, after ascertaining all the facts. Trees 

 should be carefully examined, both top and bottom, and 

 a decision rendered with care; especially if it is likely 

 to be negative. Remember that only a small percentage 

 of a heavy crop of bloom will make a fair crop of fruit. 

 Give the fruit the benefit of the doubt and spray before it 

 is too late; omitting the first spraying has brought grief 

 to many a box of fruit. With the apple especially a fair 

 proportion of the late bloom may be depended on to ma- 

 ture fruit, and if it is to be saved, will necessitate an addi- 

 tional spraying to supply the calyxes with poison. 



FROST PROTECTION 



While the occasional loss of a fruit-crop from untimely 

 frosts is considered in nearly every fruit section as one of 

 the risks of the business, the loss or partial loss of two crops 

 in succession arouses the fruit-grower to serious specula- 

 tion of the possibilities of frost-fighting. With a method 

 of frost prevention proved to be adequate and practicable, 

 provision for the protection of the orchard should always 

 be considered and the paraphernalia regarded as an indis- 

 pensable adjunct to orchard equipment. The owner of a 

 ten-acre orchard thinks nothing of investing four hundred 

 dollars in a spraying machine. He might spend an equal 

 amount for frost protection; it would be cheap insurance 



