6o 



thing else that has occurred since the value of fungicides and insecti- 

 cides became fully recognized. 



Another advance step which I believe will eventually be group- 

 ed with cultivation, pruning, spraying, etc., as an orchard practice 

 is orchard heating or smudging to prevent frost injury. Great 

 interest has been developed in this connection, many kinds of ap- 

 paratus have been devised as means of applying or generating the 

 recjuisite heat and smoke. While the practice must still be regard- 

 ed as in the experimental stage, material progress has been made 

 towards perfecting devices. When we know more about the range 

 of possibilities and methods of working, it will doubtless be pos- 

 sible to formulate fairly definite plans of procedure. 



It is now time to say that the production of good fruit does not 

 consist in the tillage of the orchard, as important as that may be, 

 or in fertilizing the soil well, nor in pruning, spraying, smudging, 

 etc. But it does consist, other things being ecj^ual, in all of these 

 various operations properly timed and adjusted to each other. 

 Each one has its relationships to all the others. A break at any 

 point in these relationships and a poorer grade of fruit is the result. 



I am not supposed to say anything about the handling of fruit 

 in the present connection, yet there is a pretty close connection be- 

 tween the production of it and its handling. There are only one 

 or two observations that I care to make about fruit handling, and 

 they are based on some of the experiences of some of my co-work- 

 ers in the Department of Agriculture who have been working in 

 California in connection w^ith the fruit transportation and storage 

 investigations of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 



