154 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and adding a more or less definite quantity of salt. This is a Californian 

 specific for scale insects. In can only be applied during the dormant 

 season. Its efficiency is greatly weakened by showery weather, con- 

 sequently it is more satisfactory on the Southern Pacific coast than in 

 the more humid regions of the Atlantic. 



Bordeaux mixture is the general fungicide used by fruit-growers. It 

 is popular because copper sulphate and lime are cheap common substances, 

 and because arsenical poisons may be applied with it advantageously. Its 

 efficiency depends largely upon the care exercised by the fruit-grower in 

 preparing and applying the spray mixture. Practical experience and 

 experiment both demonstrate this most conclusively. The following 

 table compiled from the experience of various Apple growers gives some 

 interesting information as to the value of spraying : 



Yield and Income per Acre, 1904. Orchards otherwise well cared for. 





No. orchards 



No. acres 



Av'ge yields 



Per cent, of 

 crop barreled 



Av'ge income 



Unsprayed 



43 



381 



328 



66 



#103 



Sprayed once 



33 



352 



346 



74 



139 



Sprayed twice 



70 



701 



374 



78 



143 



Sprayed three times 



27 



247^ 



414 



87 



184 



Sprayed four times 



6 



43 



569 



77 



211 



Thinning Fruit. — With Apples this is not practised at all except in 

 the case of early varieties, and with these to but a slight extent. Peaches 

 are regularly thinned by the best growers, leaving the fruit from four to 

 six inches apart ; Plums are occasionally, Grapes rarely, and Cherries 

 never thinned. The value of thinning is so clearly demonstrated in the 

 case of the Peach that growers readily adopt the practice. The difficulty 

 and expense of securing intelligent labour for work of this kind in the 

 United States militate strongly against its establishment as a regular 

 practice. Our fruit-growers rarely have the opportunity of witnessing the 

 striking results obtained from the more laborious methods that are 

 practised in Europe, out of doors as well as under glass. 



For the same reason that thinning is practised only to a limited 

 extent, dwarf fruit trees are, with the exception of the Pear, hardly ever 

 found outside the private garden of the amateur. Large orchards of Pears 

 on Quince stock are common throughout New York and New England 

 States. 



Handling the Fruit. — Let me speak first of Apples — the great staple 

 fruit of the North- Eastern States. Summer Apples are gathered in two or 

 three pickings, placed in baskets, bushel boxes, or barrels, and forwarded 

 to market in refrigerator cars if more than 100 miles distant. Winter 

 varieties are picked and usually graded in the orchard, packed in barrels 

 and immediately sent to the storage-house, where, if kept till midwinter or 

 longer, they are re-graded before shipping. For Apples there are two kinds 

 of storage-houses. The temperature of one is regulated by a carefully- 

 managed system of ventilation ; that of the other depends upon a cooling 

 agent to furnish the desired low temperature. Experiments have shown 



