The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-05-15

ABOUT q month later imam peaches. Ill
the Mississippi valley there is what is
called the June drop of apples.
Sometimes this drop is serious men,
ance to a full crop. 1t is thought by
many of the best informed norti-
culturists that the June drop" is
caused by cold rains. With us in our
warm irrigated valleys we have no
June drop" for we have no cold rains.
l do not think from what l can learn
about the matter that this drop is
| bad anywhere en- the Pacific coast.
AS a rule with us peaches are thinned
| the latter part of May and the fore
part of June. Apples are thinned about
a month later. 1t may be said truth
the Mississippi valley there is what is
fully, however, that fruit may be
thinned much later than the dates here
mentioned. Sometimes we have thinned
| apples up to the middle of August and
the results were good. 1t is claimed,
and my experience sustains the cor
rectness of the claim, that picking off
the first apples that will go to the mar
ket will prove to be of benefit to the
later ones left on the trees. | may add
before closing this full sketch about
thinning that peaches do not grow in
clusters and they can not be properly
thinned by leaving one in a place.
The rule is to leave peaches from four
to six inches apart on the limbs.
F. A. Wanamaker of Idaho writes
under date of April II, as follows:
There is a disease attacking the
peach trees here for which we would
like to find remedy. Black spots
appear on the previous years growth
from which sometimes gum exudes.
The spot invariably kills the limb
and most of the limbs are affected
within year or so, and that means
the killing of the trees. Old trees
seem to be the worst, or I might say,
old orchards, as young trees in an old
orchard are just as bad as the old ones.
My neighbors have been bothered with
this disease for sew raj years and
some thought that it was caused by
| location. Last spring, however, dur
ing wet, cool weather mine became
affected and the result was short
crop on almost every variety except
the Elberta which made a splendid
crop. l thought by this that
the liberia was the peach to
tie to, but this spring
find most of my best bearers and old
est trees are practically killed 1
have a young orchard near
by that is affected to some
extent. I am sending you some
affected limbs under separate cover.
Peaches here will not be much of a
crop. An orchard up the hill will
have a fine crop on four year old trees.
We have been spraying with the lime
sulphur wash with no effect on these
diseased trees"
The first thing to be determined in
case like this is to settle the nature
| of the disease, whether fungous, bac-
terial or caused by insects. Without
| knowing the nature of the disease we
can not tell what remedy to use. Di-
! agnosis must precede prescription. I
have carefully examined the affected
| limbs sent me by using my glass and
have no hesitancey is saying that this
| is a fungous disease. This much be-
| ing settled the next thing to be settled
| is what is the best fungicide to be used
| in such case? l have repeatedly
stated in these columns that bluestone
| (sulphate of copper is the most eff
| fective fungicide known. The
| Bordeaux mixture, consisting of blue
stone, lime and water in proper pro-
portion and mixed in the right way,
| is the best form in which to use the
sulphate of copper. I will not here
and now describe how to mix these
| ingredients. To make a good Bor-
deauX mixture is a difficult job. I
would recommend any one who does
not know how to prepare this remeoy,
to send to his state experiment sta
ton or to the Department of Agricul-
ture, Washington, d. c., and ask for
the bulletin which tells how to pre-
pare the Bordeaux mixture and then
thoroughly study them and follow the
directions implicitly.