Protection from Mice and Rabbits.— Wherever mice and rabbits exist they are liable to do much damage to young trees during the winter months, especially when the ground is covered with snow. Anything that affords pro tection to mice, such as grass, weeds or leaves, should be removed from around the trunks of trees. It. is only when the natural food of the rabbit is cut off by being covered with snow that this destructive little animal is forced to resort to gnawing the bark from fruit trees. To prevent this pest from doing this damage, the most effective plan is to tie some matenal around the body of the tree to the height of two feet or more. Cornstalks cut to the de sired length serve the purpose well; building paper, plain or tarred, and even old newspapers are effective.
Diseases.— Apple scab (Fusicladium den driticum) is probably the most serious apple disease, since it causes the loss of much fruit and injures the appearance of much more. It appears as black spots with grayish borders on apples and pears, commonly seen on greening, snow, and yellow harvest varieties that have not been sprayed. Often the abundance of the con fluent spots prevents the normal development of the fruit, which becomes lop-sided. The leaves are also attacked, but the markings are not so pronounced. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture is very effective. Rust (Rwstelia pirata) appears upon the foliage in early sum mer as orange spots more or less confluent. The fruit is also destroyed. The spores of this fungus will not germinate upon the apple but find a congenial host in the juniper or cedar, upon which they arc called cedar apples (botan ically, Gymnosporangium macro pus). These, when matured in the following spring, look something like orange yellow sponge. Their spores will not germinate upon the cedar, but will upon the apple. Sometimes the fungus perpetuates itself by its mycelium, which may live from year to year upon the young twigs and buds of the apple. Destruction of the cedars and spraying are effective. Apple canker (Nectria ditissima) destroys the bark and younger wood, and eventually the tree, but small areas may be cut out and the wounds painted with Bordeaux mixture. In fact, since this disease gains entrance through wounds, all such should be similarly treated. Burning badly infested trees is the only means of check ing the spread of this disease. Powdery mil dew (Podosphara oxycanthis), a grayish growth upon the foliage, is often troublesome in the South upon young trees and seedlings in the nursery. It may readily be controlled by a standard. fungicide. Bitter rot (Glomorella rufomasulans) appears upon the fruit as brown spots extending until they often involve the whole apple. It may attack at any time and is especially destructive to the early varieties, more in the South than in the North. Black rot (Spheeropsis malorum) resembles bitter rot and is similarly controlled. Two important bacterial pests are pear blight (Bacillus amyl avorus), which causes cankers on the limbs and trunks, and crown-gall (Bacterium tumi faciens), causing swellings on the trunk and roots just below the surface of the ground.
Oregon canker is Neafabrcen malicorticis. See FUNGICIDE.
Harvesting, etc.— As the fruit ripens, the starch which it contains becomes changed into sugar, the leaf green is replaced by tints char acteristic of the variety, the flow of sap into the fruit diminishes until the apple has attained full size and weight, when the flow practically ceases. Since the changes that now take place are mainly chemical and continue independent of the tree, the fruit may be picked. Fruit growers agree upon this time, which they de termine with each variety from experience. The fruits are still hard, but have brown seeds, and, having reached the development men tioned, may be picked by slightly twisting the stem without danger of breaking the twig upon which it is borne, thus preventing a loss of bearing-wood. Fruits gathered at this time and ripened properly are superior to those allowed to hang longer upon the tree. For best results in keeping, apples should be stored as soon as possible after picking; the temperature kept uniform and near 33° F., so as to check the ripening process; draughts avoided, since they hasten decay and increase shriveling, hence closed packages are better than shelves; odors should be excluded.
By-Products.— Apple culls may be used in more ways than the culls of any other fruit crop, and each product finds a ready market, mainly at home. The better specimens are usually evaporated, the cores and peelings of such being utilized either for cider-making or more frequently they are dried and shipped to Europe for the manufacture of certain kinds of champagne and other wines. The others are usually made into cider, which in turn may be remanufactured into jelly, apple-jack (apple brandy, a distilled liquor) or vinegar. When cider and apples are mixed and boiled with or without sugar the product is called marina lade, and, if spices be added, apple butter. The pomace (as crushed fruit is called, especially after the expression of the juice) is washed to obtain the seeds, which are dried and used for planting.
Bailey, Notes on Apple Culture> (New York 1886) ; Beach, S. A., (The Apples of New (Albany 1905) ; Burritt, M. C., Growing> (New York 1912) ; Moore, S. W., Orcharding on Rough Lands) (Akron, Ohio, 1911) ; Apple' (Nebraska State Horticultural Society, Vol. XXV, Lincoln 1894) ; Todd, (Apple Culturist' (1871) ; Warder, Po mology> Part I, Apples (1867) ; Waugh, F. A., (The American Apple Orchard) (New York 1908) ; Wilkinson, A. E., Apple) (Boston 1915) ; Woolverton, L., Canadian Apple Growers' Guide) (Toronto 1910), and various reports of horticultural societies, especially of the American Pomological, Michigan Pomolog ical and Western New York Horticultural societies; also various works on fruit culture.