16 N. H. Agr. Experiment Station [Bulletin 289 



Ruptured Egg Yolk in the Domestic Fowl 



Studies were continued on the relation of bacteria to ruptured egg yolk. 

 Pasteurella Avicida, which has been described as causing the disease, was 

 not recovered from any of the birds examined. A number of other organ- 

 isms have, however, been isolated but no one species has been found con- 

 stantly present and none of them, when inoculated into the birds, have 

 produced typical ruptured egg yolk symptoms. (L. W. Slanetz — PiirncU 

 Fund.) 



Fruit Bud Formation 



Plots of Mcintosh trees at Durham and Temple, N, H. sprayed for two 

 seasons with mild sulphur have as yet shown no greater fruit bud formation 

 than control plots sprayed with commercial lime-sulphur solution. Thus in 

 the blocks at Durham, the average per cent of all spurs blossoming in May 

 1935 was for mild sulphur 94.5, and for lime-sulphur 94.0, while in the 

 Rockwood orchard at Temple, the percentages were mild sulphur 91.0, lime- 

 sulphur 92.0. Percentage bloom in 1935 reflects only spray treatments of 

 1934. The effect of this year's spraying on fruit bud formation will not be 

 evident until the spring of 1936. 



In a second test, likewise designed to influence the carbyhydrate supply, 

 eight groups of four Mcintosh trees each were selected, the trees of each 

 group being uniform as to size and vigor, and reasonably close together in 

 the orchard. One tree in each group was left untreated as a control, and the 

 other three were thinned — one on June 20, one of July 15, and the third on 

 August 10. About one apple was left to five fruit spurs which would give 

 approximately 60 leaves per fruit, of which approximately one-half were 

 small primary spur leaves. Subsequent to thinnnig, the total leaf area per 

 fruit was about 100 square inches. 



These treatments gave very definite responses in size and color of the 

 apples as is indicated in the following table. 



Effect of Thinning Mcintosh 

 U. N. H. 1935 (Trees 17 years old) 



Here the thinning treatments have definitely reduced the load of fruit per 

 tree and there is correlated response in size and color of the fruit. Results 

 of other investigators, both in Eastern orchards and in the Pacific North- 

 west, lead us to expect there will also be increased fruit bud formation on 

 the trees thinned early. When these data are available in the spring of 1936, 

 these tests should relate the response of Mcintosh in this climate to that of 

 York, Delicious, and other varieties in the Shenandoah-Cumberland Valley 

 and Ortley, Yellow Newton, and Delicious in the Pacific Northwest. 



