Annual Report, 1915, Jeffers Trial Station.
DEWAIN COOK, SUPT.
The 1915 apple crop at this station was a complete failure, owing to the freezes of late May and early June. This apple failure, so far as I have been able to ascertain, was prevalent over the entire county of Cottonwood, although we could hear of plenty of apples being grown only a short distance over the county line in all directions excepting to the west of us.
A windbreak at Dewain Cook's, mostly white willow.
The season has been one of cool weather and much rainfall, so much so that although we had no killing frosts this fall until October 5th, yet no corn or melons ripened in this vicinity. We quit spraying our fruit trees when the freeze came last spring and destroyed the apple crop, and the result has been that there was much scab on the foliage of many varieties of our apple trees. The Antonovka and the Hibernal seem to be about the healthiest in this respect. As to the fire blight there has been absolutely none at this station the season just passed.
As for plums we got a few bushels in the final roundup, De Sotos, Wolfs and Wyants mostly. Of the Japanese hybrids, we got a few specimens of the B. A.Q. The Emerald bore freely, but the fruit mostly either was destroyed by the brown rot or cracked badly just as they were getting ripe. The Tokata, one of Hansen's hybrids, gave us specimens of very fine fruit.
Of the apricot hybrids only the Hanska made any pretense of trying to bear anything, but the curculio got away with about all of them.
When I made the midsummer report most of Hansen's sand cherry hybrids were promising a good crop, but with the exception of the Enopa and Kakeppa, from which we gathered a few quarts of fruits, we got nothing. The brown rot, assisted by the curculio, took them all. It sure looks as if we ever expect to make a general success with these sand cherry hybrids and with the Japanese hybrids, we will have to be better educated along the line of controlling this disease that is so very destructive to the fruit of some varieties of plums, especially of those varieties that have sand cherry or Japanese blood in them.
A veteran white spruce at Mr. Cook's place.
Specimen Colorado blue spruce at Dewain Cook's.
We have to report a grand success with everbearing strawberry No. 1017, sent to this station from our State Fruit-Breeding Farm last spring. The season all through was favorable for that class of fruit. We kept all blossoms picked off till about the first of August, when we let everything grow, and there is a great number of new plants. These new plants, with a few exceptions, did not bear, but the old plants, the ones set last spring, we gathered from them, from about September 15 till the first hard frost, October 5th, a liberal crop of surprisingly fine fruit. The Americus, also an everbearing variety, treated exactly as we did Minnesota 1017, bore a great number of plants and some fruit in the fall. The berries were not so large as the 1017 nor so many of them. While it is a perfect flowering variety, most of the late blossoms blighted, which seems to be a weakness of this variety.
On November 5th our strawberry beds were all given a mulching with loose oat straw for a winter protection.
The several varieties of grape vines originating at the Minnesota State Farm on trial here have all made a vigorous growth. We have them all pruned and laid on the ground, and we intend to give them no other winter protection. They are in a sheltered location. In spite of the various freezes early in the season we got samples of fruit from most of the varieties. Minnesota No. 8 seems to be the earliest to ripen its fruit. The wild grape flavor is noticeable in all these varieties.
The various varieties of plum trees sent here from the State Farm made vigorous growth the past season and are looking healthy with the exception of Minnesota No. 21. Of the five trees of this variety each one has a great many galls on the body of the tree. It is probably what is termed black knot, only the galls have not turned black yet. They are apparently of too recent growth for that. It is probable that we will plant other trees in their places next spring.
Painting of Small Tree Wounds Useless.—It has long been the custom for horticulturists to recommend, and fruit growers to use, dressings of various kinds on the wounds of trees when branches are removed in pruning. A few years ago the New York Experiment Station decided to conduct some experiments to determine whether such practice was really of any value or not.
From results of this work, which have recently been published in bulletin form, it is concluded that the use of white lead, white zinc, yellow ochre, coal tar, shellac and avenarious carbolineum as coverings for wounds under five inches in diameter is not only useless, but usually detrimental to the tree. This is particularly true of peaches, and perhaps of some other stone fruits, which, according to recommendations, should never be treated at all.
The substances mentioned often injure the cambium layer to such an extent that the healing of wounds is greatly retarded. Of the substances experimented with, white lead proved to be the best and is recommended wherever anything is used. But it is not thought worth while to use even white lead for wounds two or three inches or less in diameter, though it may be advisable to use it on wounds where very large branches have been removed.
On the larger wounds, where much surface is exposed to decay, the white lead will help to keep out moisture and the organisms which cause decay. The smaller wounds, however, heal so quickly that the evil effects of the covering may more than offset the benefits derived from its use.—R. A. McGinty, Colorado Agricultural College, Fort Collins, Colorado.