FACTORS INFLUENCING YIELD, COLOR, ETC., IN APPLES.

77

or mulch treatments, however, it has seemed probable that the nitrogen was hardly sufficient in the above formula, though this is a point that will have to be determined more or less by local trial. The nitrogen can, of course, be furnished by manure or leguminous plants to a greater or less extent, if this is found desirable.

In a few of our orchards, moreover, no form of fertiliza tion has as yet produced a material response. This we consider due to the presence of other limiters, of which improper moisture supply is frequently important, though there are many other possible limiters.

The existence of such orchards emphasizes the need of local or community tests before making large and regular expenditures for fertilizers. These tests can be readily made by treating one part of the orchard and leaving the remainder unfertilized. In the case of most young orchards, or in any orchard that is doing well in growth and fruiting and retains a thrifty foliage well through late August and September, it is doubtless safest to fertilize only a small portion of the orchard for two or three years and leave the larger part unfertilized. The fact that the trees are well loaded in a given year, however, is no sufficient reason for omitting the fertilizer that year. In fact, that is one of the best reasons and times for applying a proper fertilizer rather liberally, in order to prevent the total absence of a crop the following year, and in the long run to tend to steady the annual production.

In case of the reverse conditions-old orchards or those not retaining a thrifty look throughout the season or not growing and bearing satisfactorily-it is best to reverse the procedure, and fertilize the larger portion, leaving only a small block to test the value of the treatment. In all cases, however, we strongly advise the use of a check until the real value of the treatment is well established. It is neither desirable to throw away money by too much liberality in the treatment of a crop, nor to fail to realize its possibilities by too niggardly a treatment.

The time of application also we consider important, espe cially in the case of the nitrates. While our evidence is by no means complete on this point, yet we believe that it is quite possible to make the applications either too early or too late for satisfactory results. In fact, we have some evidence, from the work of certain orchardists, that leads us to believe that very distinct harm may be done by applying nitrogen too near to the fruit-setting time, especially in the case of peaches. Other evidence indicates that nitrates applied too early in the season may be wholly lost to the trees.

So that all things considered, we feel that nitrates should

be applied not earlier than petal-fall in apples and probably not later than the 1st of July, though some of our best results have come from applications as late as July 8. Most any time during the period indicated will probably get the most out of the nitrate applications.

With the other less soluble and slower acting materials, the time of application is much less important. We know some careful observers who even advocate the application of phosphate and potash in the fall on peaches, and claim that they get the best results in that way. Our own feeling on this is that the time of application for the mineral fertilizers is of relatively little importance. In any event, they are rather quickly fixed in the soil and they do not leach readily. Hence, in their case, we put them on along with the nitrogen, letting the time of application for the latter, which is important, govern for all.

The President declared the meeting adjourned at 5:10 P. M. to meet again at 7:30 P. M.

EVENING SESSION

(Meeting called to order at 7:55 P. M. by President Beach.)

THE PRESIDENT: This morning we had the pleasure of having with us Pomologist Brackett, who gave us a few words of encouragement. This evening we have with us the former pomologist of the United States Department of Agriculture. Professor H. E. Van Deman, and I have asked him to occupy about five minutes in speaking to us along horticultural lines. Possibly it will be along the line of pecan culture.

PROFESSOR VAN DEMAN: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I had not thought of saying anything at all at this meeting. I just came to see you and to hear what was said by others, but I certainly feel at home in almost any horticultural meeting; certainly at this one. My friend, Professor Beach, has suggested that I might say something on the subject of pecan culture, and as I have just come from our pecan orchard in Louisiana, the subject is quite fresh in my mind. I presume all of you have seen the pecan growing and know what a majestic tree it makes. If some of you were to go through the delta region of Louisiana and Mississippi, you could see trees there which are 125 to 150 feet high with a spread of 100 to 150 feet in their branches, some of them bearing crops which seem to be unreasonably large. There is one pecan tree there which has borne as much as fourteen barrels of nuts in one year.

PROFESSOR CLOSE: How many pounds of pecans to the

barrel?

PROFESSOR VAN DEMAN: About a hundred and forty pounds, although there are some differences. Some will weigh as low as a hundred and twenty-five pounds to the barrel; that is, the ordinary standard flour barrel, but that would be a very poor grade of pecan, one that is not well filled out. Some of them will run as high as a hundred and fifty pounds. The pecan tree as perhaps we all know is a native only of the Mississippi Valley. It begins in southern Iowa and extends to the Gulf Region. I said only in the Mississippi Valley, but there are a good many trees in the Rio Grande and other river valleys in Texas, and to some extent in Mexico, and I have had some rather indefinite reports that it has been found native a little to the eastward of the Mississippi watershed in Alabama. I do not know how well founded those reports are, so I only mention what I have heard. The pecan is at home in the lower Mississippi Valley, and the varieties which are grown there now for commercial purposes are very much more tender than those of the northern region, such as are found in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. There have been reports in some of the papers which would lead people to think that they might grow these southern varieties in any of the northern states. This is a very great mistake. The trees will not live. They will usually die, root and branch, when they are planted in the northern states. Fortunately, however, there are good varieties of the pecan which are hardy. Only this afternoon, in the office of a gentleman in this city who has his home in southern Indiana and who has collected a very considerable number of varieties which are worthy of culture in the northern states, I saw some very good looking pecans. The time will come when hardy trees will be for sale by some of the nurseries, and a man who lives in Iowa and possibly in Pennsylvania, but I hardly think in New York, will be able to grow these choice varieties of the pecans of the northern type in the northern states with good prospects of success. A society has recently been organized called the Northern Nut Growers' Association that has taken up this subject with very deep interest, and recently there was a meeting held at Cornell Univeristy at Ithaca which I unfortunately was unable to attend. The pecan is the nut of America, and it is the nut of the world. There is not as good a nut in all the world as the pecan. I will make no exceptions, tropical or otherwise; there is no nut that equals the pecan in delicious flavor and in general goodness, and when the right varieties are grown they will be as profitable as anything that we can plant in the way of fruit, or of any vegetation, from the tiniest plant to the tallest tree, and the amount that will

be grown will in time be one of the great factors in the trade in American nuts. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: I am very glad indeed to have Professor Van Deman with us and to hear something from him concerning this subject which he is enthusiastic about. I would suggest that our program committee make a place on our program for some of our future meetings for the consideration of this question of nut culture. We have already had some papers of that kind in the American Breeders' Association on the breeding of tree and nut fruits. As Professor Van Deman says, it opens up a new and interesting field.

This evening we shall have the pleasure of having Professor Alwood explain to us the use of the Brix Spindle in Determining the Sugar Content of Fruits.

THE USE OF THE BRIX SPINDLE IN DETERMINING THE
SUGAR CONTENT OF FRUIT JUICES

BY W. B. ALWOOD, Enological Chemist, Charlottes-
ville, Va.

At present one commonly finds three spindles in use for determining the density of fruit juices, viz.: Oechsle, Balling and Baumè, and occasionally others which are made especially for certain manufacturers of supplies are met with. Any one of these spindles might be agreed upon as a standard, for reading density of fruit juices, but there are good reasons for rejecting them all in favor of the Brix spindle now in common use in sugar laboratories and factories. This spindle is the standard adopted by the Prussian Government many years since. It is so made as to read direct in percentage the actual sugar content of a solution in pure water. It is not correct to say that it will read the other solids present in a fruit juice with the same accuracy because of the difference in physical properties, but in fruit juices the sugar content is so much greater than the other solids that substantial accuracy is secured. When the size of the bulb and the weight are so proportioned as to permit the graduation of 16 per cent in tenths on a six inch stem, this permits the observer to read the solids present in percentage to the first decimal place with considerable accuracy. This is as close as is necessary in most observations on the quality of a fruit juice. It is important that the must should be tested at the temperature for which the spindle is standardized or that correction should be made by the table furnished by the Bureau of Standards.

It is true that the Balling spindle is almost the same as the Brix, the difference being simply that Balling did not take into account the shrinkage of volume when sugar is dissolved in water. This difference however slight has value in scien

tific work. The Brix scale is already the standard instrument used in the laboratories of the bureau of chemistry wherever it is a question of recording the density of fruit juices, hence it would be a distinct advantage in the collection and interpretation of results if all persons having need of a mustimetre should adopt this standard. If such uniformity can be secured, all references to the density of fruit juices in both horticultural and chemical writings will be in terms readily understood and comparable by the workers in different fields, without the trouble of transposing from one scale to another.

The Oechsle and Baumé spindles are not graduated so as to permit of readings as accurate as is desirable. This will be seen by comparing the columns in the accompanying table where is shown the cross readings on four different spindles. The Brix readings are given to one tenth of one per cent, but both the Oechsle and Baumé spindles are not graduated to show a change for one tenth of one per cent. This is illustrated by the figures for these two spindles being exactly repeated in many instances when the Brix shows a difference in sugar content. The readings for specific gravity when given to four decimal places are very accurate, but it is difficult to show these graduations on a spindle of such length as is required for convenience. In this connection it should be noted that the Oechsle spindle is simply a modification of a specific gravity spindle. The readings below one hundred Oechsle be. ing the second and third figures to the right of the point of the specific gravity scale.

TABLE I. COMPARATIVE PER CENT READINGS OF MUST SPINDLES TAKEN FROM STANDARD TABLES ON DENSITY.