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ting it down so low, as is a matter of necessity here. Dr. White calls 

 attention to the matter of the curled leaf, stating that some of the trees 

 within his observation have had the curled leaf this year, and not last 

 year, and vice versa, and asking for information and explanation as to 

 that matter. 



Mr. Gray: Up in this part of the country we have very little curled 

 leaf. I was at Mr. Shinn's orchard at Niles two or three years ago, and he 

 mentioned a number of varieties of peaches that he could not raise with 

 profit on account of the curled leaf that with us rarely if ever curl at all, 

 except once in awhile when we have a very wet winter and the leaves 

 start quickly and make a fast growth, but never enough to injure the crop 

 at all, and the varieties that curl down on the bay do not curl at all here. 



Mr. Hatch: How about the success of the apricot in this vicinity? 



Mr. Gray: We think it succeeds very well indeed, and it will stand 

 much heavier soil, as you all know, than the peach, and our sandy loam 

 produces very fine apricots; the Moorpark, which is our favorite, does better 

 with us than it does in many other sections of the State; owing to the drier 

 atmosphere perhaps they ripen more evenly and are very large; perhaps 

 Mr. Hatch will remember taking a ride with me to our Moorpark orchard 

 when he and Mr. Buck said there was not the like in the State. It is one 

 of our chief fruits, and a fruit that brings in as much money as anything 

 else we can plant. 



Mr. Klee: I am satisfied that the curled leaf is caused or flourishes 

 best when the atmosphere is damp — dampness and sudden changes, and 

 if we could retard the development of the trees many times, it might pre- 

 vent the curled leaf from doing the trees any harm. I have read that they 

 do that in France by protecting them, but of course that is out of the 

 question. An experienced and successful fruit grower in San Jose, who 

 used successfully, for the purpose of killing scale insects, their so called 

 sal soda and whale oil wash, maintains that ever since he has been using 

 that wash he has been free from the curled leaf, and his explanation is, 

 that his trees are being somewhat retarded, and for those seasons, at least, 

 has escaped the cold spell that often comes in springtime, and as other 

 orchards in his vicinity have been affected, there seems to be something 

 in it, and it may be. worth trying by others. 



Dr. Kimball: Around the Bay of San Francisco there are very many 

 varieties of peach we cannot raise in consequence of the tendency to curled 

 leaf. Some sixteen or seventeen years ago I had a peach orchard of a 

 number of varieties, some of which curled very badly, and one variety was 

 inclined to curl all the time; and it chanced that one tree escaped trim- 

 ming, and it almost entirely escaped the effects of the curled leaf; so the 

 next year I did not trim any of those trees, and let them develop, and let the 

 sap out— we usually cut our peach trees back every year nearly two thirds 

 of its growth, and in so doing take probably two thirds of the leaf surface; 

 and when we leave the whole of the leaf surface to draw the sap of the 

 tree, we find that it w T ill be an expenditure that would check the excessive 

 growth. I found those trees were not absolutely cured, but were very much 

 improved; and let them grow until they leaved out thoroughly, and until 

 the peaches were about as large as hazel nuts, and then I went to work and 

 had those trees trimmed. I did that as long as I kept the trees in our 

 orchard, and never lost a crop of fruit after that on those trees from the 

 curled leaf. I mention that as a possible cause — the excessive pushing of 

 the sap into the extremities of the trees, and, as the consequence, a tend- 

 ency to chill from our peculiar conditions of atmosphere and cold nights. 

 I think that same thing will apply to trees in Sonoma County. 



