NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



505 



the method adopted in some districts of the severe and persistent 

 heading down of standard fruit trees, to facihtate orchard operations 

 (pp. 7-15). Pear bhght has been very disastrous in the past, but 

 growers are obtaining a considerable degree of success against it, the 

 main factors in their treatment apparently being thorough lime-sulphur 

 sprayings, combined with the complete removal, with sterilized tools, 

 of all diseased parts, while soil cultivation has been discontinued (p. 17). 

 This latter part appeals to the author, as he is a strong advocate of the 

 grass-mulch method of orchard practice, especially in hilly districts 

 (p. 18). Various other subjects of more or less interest to those con- 

 cerned in the horticultural development of the State are touched upon 



e.g. orchard renewal (p. 11), the retail market (pp. 34-38), and 



potato-growing in the Huson valley (pp. 44-50). The report closes 

 with instances of bud-sporting in apples and grapes, and the selection 

 of plants showing special power of resistance to disease. — A. P. 



Orchard Practice in Wisconsin {U.S.A. Hort. Soc. Wisconsin, 

 Bull. 18; 7 figs.). — This bulletin has been prepared for the purpose of 

 tmswering inquiries relative to fruit-growing in this State, and is a 

 small but comprehensive treatise, intended, as it says, for beginners. 



A. P. 



Orchards: Protection from Spring- Frosts by Fires and 

 Smudg-es. By P. J. O'Gara {U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Farmers' Bull. 401; 

 June 1910, 11 figs.). — This bulletin deals with experiments and methods 

 employed in preventing frost injury by means of fires and smudges in 

 some apple, pear, and peach orchards in Southern Oregon in the spring 

 of 1909. The writer claims that as a result many acres of crops, valued 

 at $500 to $1000 the acre, were saved at a total expenditure of 

 $15 to $20 the acre. The materials to employ for fuel and the manner 

 of distributing them in the orchards, the methods of preparing and 

 starting the fires, together with the necessity of understanding local 

 weather conditions, so as to know when to set the fires going, are dis- 

 cussed at considerable length. — A. P. 



Orchard Soils, The Treatment of {West Indian Bull. vol. x. 

 No. 2, pp. 170-179 ; 1909). — The orchards under consideration are 

 chiefly cacao, and in their early stages cassava, yams, and sweet 

 potatos are grown under the trees. When the latter have grown too 

 much for this to be possible the best treatment of the soil to avoid 

 caking or impoverishmient from pasturing or hoeing is to let the weeds 

 grow to a certain height, and then to cut them down with a cutlass 

 and leave them on the surface. This provides a mulch, which prevents 

 undue evaporation, adds to the supply of humus in the soil, and lessens 

 washing away by heavy rains. 



The character of the ** weeds " might be controlled to a certain 

 extent with the object of increasing leguminous varieties. — C. H. L. 



Orchard, The Farmers. By G. G. Woodbury {U.S.A. Eocp. 

 Stn. Purdue, Circ. 17; Sept. 1909; 36 figs.).— -The farmstead orchards 



