The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-08-01

culturist all his life. He is now 81
years old and is destitute. | have met
people who have known him for many
years and they speak of him as an ex-
cellent man. He says further: 81
have no money; l have owing me
$3.50, and that is all l have in this
world except a few stamps sent me by
friends. l am pleased with the course
Mr. Walden has taken in showing up
the Spencer Seedless apple humbug.
e. l.. Vangilder, Kellogg, Idaho,
sends me some apples that are affect
ed with some disease and wants to
know what to do. He says of the
trees that bore these apples: "The
trees were badly bothered with aphis
last year, and | laid the injury to
them but this year we have kept the
aphis under control and the apples
seem worse affected this year than
ever" These apples are affected with
what is known as the apple scab. This
is a fungous disease and cannot be
cured, but may be prevented. The
apples affected cannot be helped, but
the attack lasts only one year and
then dies. The disease winters over
in the form of spores, and if these are
destroyed there will be no attack the
next year. Spray your trees with full
strength Bordeaux mixture before the
leaves open' in the spring, and then
again with half strength mixture after
the bloom has fallen. Destroy the old
leaves by burning them early in the
spring, or pillow them under. With
these precautions you will be able to
control the scab. If you have to spray
with the lime-sulphur wash for the
destruction of the San Jose scale, you
will not have much trouble with the
scab, for this wash is not only val
liable insecticide, but a good fungicide,
as we'll.
One of our subscribers in Oregon
makes the following statement and
asks the following question under date
of July 16: 81 have become satisfied
that | have been growing too much
wood in my apple orchard, as most of
the trees have little or no fruit on
them now. l thought it would be a
good time to prune them and shorten
the top branches, SO as to make it
more convenient for spraying, picking,
etc. l value your opinion highly and
would like to know whether it would
be wise to 10 so now or if you think
it is too late?"
My judgment is that it is too late
to do much, if any good this year by
pruning. Checking the growth of the
trees at the time of the formation of
the cambium layer undoubtedly tends
to the formation of fruit buds. AS
late as the first of August the trees
have practically ceased to grow for
that season. Hence, pruning would
not affect the buds, or in other words,
new fruit buds will not be formed so
late in the season. By stimulating the
trees it is a we'll attested fact that
fruit buds may be changed to leaf
buds as late as October, but there is
no proof that the reverse can be done,
that is, you cannot change leaf buds
to fruit buds at that late date. There
may be other reasons why these trees
do not bear. Some varieties, like the
Northern Spy cannot be made to bear
early. Then frosts may have nipped
the young fruit at the time of bloom
ing or it may be that fertilization did
not take place.
1t is surprising how widely reports
differ as to the crop prospects. The
best authority | know on the question
of fruit prospects is the Fruit Grower
of st. Joseph, Mo. That paper sends
out inquiries to all parts of the United
States and Canada. The answers are
from fruitgrowers and must be as re-
liable as such things can be. Here
is what this valuable paper says in
the July issue:
Reports from Fruit Grower CORE