The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1912-03-01

SAOP0 RAOSCAG Vic Va OAlO
trees in the hot summer months.
Opportunity was given for ques-
tions to be answered and incidental
to this, Prof. Morris related the re-
suits of experiments which are be-
ing carried on at the college in
whitewashing trees TO retard their
blooming a couple of weeks and so
protect them from the damaging
frosts. While the results are good,
means of making the whitewash
stick in sufficient quantity without
too great an expenditure of time
and labor in proportion to good ac-
complished is one of the problems
which is yet to be worked out in
making this system practical. The
whitewash is applied with a sprayer.
Orchard Pruning" was Prof.
Morris's subject Monday afternoon
and the fruitgrowers found many
helpful points in his talk. He
thoroughly discussed the tw" types
of trees, the one with a leader as
exemplifed in the Jonathan and
Winesap apple, and the tree with
an open center such as the Rome
Beauty apple. He said that the
modern orchardist met with two ex-
tremes, too severe pruning and no
pruning at all and of these too
much pruning is the greater evil.
Pruning is a corrective process and
its purpose IS to train the trees into
the perfect form, eliminating the
surplus branches of the tree which
sap its vitality and are useless. The
general direction of growth is the
thing to be considered in right
pruning. There is no way of prun-
ing trees so right that all other
ways are wrong" said Prof. Morris.
He advocates careful study of per-
feet trees by the inexperienced
pruner and admonished him to note
carefully the well pruned orchard
of some neighbor who is making a
success of it. He is then better
qualified to 60 home and do like
wise.
District fruit inspector, F. E.
DeSellem gave a short talk on
Sprays and Spraying giving
valuable information on the treat
ment of insects which prey upon the
fruit. The lime sulphur spray has
been found an efficient remedy in
many cases and this can be easily
manufactured at home with the aid
of lime sulphur hydrometer at a
much smaller cost than the COM
mercial product can be purchased.
Its vigorous use in combating the
aphis will do the work if applied
soon enough. Mr.. DeSellem VS.
emphatic in his statement that
spraying should not be delayed un-
til the leaves begin to curl. He
recommended the Bordeaux nozzle
highly for use in general spraying.
The wolly aphis is considered the
worst pest of all and they are
legion" 1t attacks the tree where
it cannot be easil y gotten at. Pear
blight has not made any serious
inroads in this valley as yet but the
orchardists are warned to look out
for it. Ore safeguard against all
pests is to secure good clean nursery
stock in the first place and every
tree should be sprayed upon pur-
chase.
Mr.. DeSellem is promoting
movement for instituting packing
school in this vicinity, for one of
the great needs of the immediate
future will be to secure efficient help
in packing season. 1t is possible
that the one-week short course for
farmers will be secured for Kenne-
newick, which is being offered by
the State College. Excellent in
structors are sent out to take charge
of the school.
After the session at the CONNER
Continued on Page Four)