14 BULLETIN 1104, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
foothill and inland orchards have relatively a somewhat higher 
temperature, more sunshine, and lower humidity. 
For several years fruit has been gathered from orchards located | 
well up on the hills, above the fog belt, and also from several dif- 
ferent orchards down on the floor of the valley. The fruit from 
these different orchards has been handled in the same way, stored 
under similar conditions, and inspected in the spring to determine 
the distribution of orchards producing fruit which tends to brown 
internally during storage. This fruit has been compared with 
Yellow Newtown apples from Virginia and from the Yakima and 
Wenatchee districts of Washington. 
Some internal browning has been found to occur in Yellow New- 
town apples from all these fruit-growing sections as well as from 
all parts of the Pajaro Valley apple district. From the sections 
outside the Pajaro district, however, and in the hill orchards in 
that district, internal browning has been found only to such a 
small extent as to be of little importance in a commercial way. 
Only in fruit from the orchards on the floor of the valley, in the 
summer fog belt and growing in soil of very high fertility, has this 
trouble been particularly serious. These observations are based on 
the inspection of hundreds of boxes of fruit extending over several 
years. The detailed records of these inspections are much too 
voluminous to be included in this. bulletin. 
RELATION OF INTERNAL BROWNING TO SOIL FERTILITY AND FERTILIZERS. 
In order to determine whether internal browning is related to 
any soil deficiency either of an organic or of an inorganic con- 
stituent, a series of fertilizer plats was laid out in 1917 and initial 
applications were made. Three plats were established, trees outside 
the plats receiving no fertilizer treatment serving as a check. Each 
plat contained 15 trees. . 
Plat. 1, known as the nitrogen plat, received 10 pounds of am- 
monium sulphate per tree in 1917. As the trees were very large 
and no appreciable response could be detected from this treatment, 
the quantity was increased to 20 pounds in 1918. In 1919 sodium 
nitrate was used instead of the ammonium sulphate, and in 1920 
20 pounds of ammonium sulphate were again added. 
Plat 2, the manure plat, was started in the spring of 1917. Soil 
was removed from around the trees in an area equal to about the 
spread of the branches, and about a ton of barnyard manure was 
applied at the base of each tree. In addition, 20 pounds of steamed 
bone meal, containing about 20 per cent of phosphoric acid and 
4 per cent of nitrogen, were added for each tree. Thus, each tree 
in the plat was very heavily fertilized with phosphoric acid, nitro- 
gen, and organic matter, while considerable potash was available 
in the manure. No subsequent applications of fertilizer were made. 
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