EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED WITH A VIEW TO CONTROLLING DISEASE. 63 



9. AT YANCO GOVERNMENT FARM, NEW SOUTH WALES. 



This is the second year of the pruning experiments, and although there are only four young 

 Cleopatra trees, and it is too soon for the full effects to show, the general bearing on the yield and 

 amount of Pit may be indicated. 



The apples were picked on 2nd February, fully three weeks earlier than the previous season, 

 and the trees were irrigated during August, October, November, December, and January, in all, five 

 times. The amount of water to each irrigation was approximately three inches of rain. 



The rainfall for the winter, spring, and summer months up to the time of picking was only 

 2 03 inches, distributed as follows : 



Inches. Inches. Inchep. 



June . . . . . . '43 September . . . . '09 December . . . . -84 



July . . . . . . '14 October . . . . January . . . . '06 



August . . . . '07 November . . . . '40 



90 

 64 -49 



TABLE XXXIII. RESULTS OF DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRUNING ON CLEOPATRA 



SEASON 1914-15. 



Clean. Pitted. 



-, 



Per cent. Pitted. 



7 

 7 

 5 

 3 



The trees were pruned in August, and the fruit is reckoned by number and not by weight. 

 This is not considered an apple district, and the crop was not large on any of the trees. The severely 

 pruned tree blossomed about six days earlier than the others, and the unpruned tree carried most 

 fruit, since there were so many laterals. 



The yield varied in regular gradation from the unpruned, which was the highest, to the severely 

 pruned, which was the lowest, in the ratio of 48, 28, 15, and 9 per cent. 



There was comparatively little Pit, so that no general conclusions can be drawn. However, 

 the least amount occurred in the unpruned and leader-pruned trees. 



TABLE XXXIV. SUMMARY FOR Two YEARS OF DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRUNING. 



Yield. Pitted. 



Total Yield. C^TT^^ Total Pitted. Per cent. Pitted. 

 1914. 1915. 



No. No. No. 



77 14 8-7 



2 14 16 7 



18 19 37 8 



7 16 23 3-9 



The results for the two years during which these experiments were conducted show that the 

 unpruned trees had the smallest percentage of pitted fruit. 



