NOTES AND ABSTEACTS. 



139 



very large volumes of cold air; but in properly constructed storage 

 rooms, with plant of moderate power, it was found that thirty-six 

 to forty-eight hours, depending upon the initial temperature of the; 

 fruit and the efficiency and capacity of the refrigerating apparatus, 

 were required to cool the fruit to the temperature which would 

 be maintained by the iced cars en route. It has been demonstrated 

 that it is possible to transport fruit safely which has been well ripened 

 on the tree and preserve its quality and flavour, thus obviating the 

 necessity of picking such fruit as peaches, plums, and apricots in a hard, 

 green condition. 



Commercially, two types of precooling are now in use. In one 

 the cooling is accomplished before the fruit is loaded in the cars, and 

 in the other after it has been loaded, by forcing cold air through the 

 cars. The temperature of the air surrounding the fruit package does 

 not indicate at all the temperature of the fruit itself unless it has 

 been exposed to the air temperature for many hours. The 

 blowing of cold air over fruit has very little or no effect in preserving 

 it unless continued until the temperature of the fruit itself is actually 

 lowered. — A. P. 



Fruit Trees, Chlorosis in. By G. Eiviere and 0. Bailhache 

 {Jour. Soc. Nat. Hort. Fr. p. 649 ; Dec. 1911.). — The results of some 

 experiments in treating trees affected with chlorosis with iron. Most 

 investigators so far have used powdered protosulphate of iron. The 

 writers of this article seem to have proved that a far more efficacious 

 treatment is with citro-ammoniacal pyrophosphate of iron used in 

 solution. In other cases growers have generally found it necessary 

 to treat each affected limb ; these writers found that with their mixture 

 injection through one hole was enough for the whole tree- system above 

 it. In the case of a U-shaped cordon a treatment of one branch of the 

 U near its junction with the trunk was quite efficacious on the other 

 branch. The mixture has the additional advantage that it is not 

 precipitated by tannin. The strength of the mixture should be at the 

 rate of 0gr.50 to the litre of water. The glass tube through which 

 the iron was administered is described and the length of time it took 

 the trees to absorb the necessary dose is given. — M. L. H. 



Fruit Trees, Effect of Grass on. By the Duke of Bedford, 

 K.G., and Spencer U. Pickering, F.R.S. {W churn, Thirteenth 

 Report, 1911; 5 plates).' — What the authors term "grass-effect" 

 takes the form of the arrest of all healthy growth, a light and 

 unhealthy character imparted to the leaves, and the earliness of the 

 appearance of autumn tints (p. 9), resulting in some cases in the 

 early death of the trees. During the sixteen years over which the 

 experiments have extended no recovery from the effect has been noticed 

 except where the roots have begun to extend beyond the grassed area. 

 Trees which become grassed over gradually, however, during th© 

 course of several years, apparently accommodate themselves to the 

 altering conditions, and suffer much less than when grass is actually 



