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A threefold increase in grazing capacity was achieved in a five-year range improvement program involving the seeding of adapted clovers, phosphorus fertilization, and grazing management on over 500 acres. Grazing records and quadrat harvests demonstrate the marked success of the improvement methods.

The worst pest of alfalfa ever to reach California has spread within two years to 33 alfalfa-producing counties.

Dead material in second-growth ponderosa pine is one factor contributing to destructive uncontrolled fires in summer.

Prebloom spray treatment against the overwintering eggs of European red mite on pears reduced populations and prevented an early season build-up. Thus far, Genite-923 is the only material which has given consistent control—at a dosage of 1% pints of 50% emulsion per 100 gallons—combined with lime-sulfur or organic fungicides regularly used for pear scab control.

Bartlett pears from trees in two Mendocino County orchards and one Sacramento Valley orchard that were sprayed or dusted with copper—for blight control—during 1955 were as free from russet as fruit from trees treated with streptomycin.

The codling moth was less destructive—generally—to northern California walnuts in 1955 than in 1954.

Technical DDT at the rate of 4.5 to 12 pounds an acre—depending upon the method and number of applications—is applied to most of California's commercial sweet corn acreage to control the corn earworm.

Zinc sprays produced marked yield increases in certain annual crops in so-called sick-spots in Yolo County in 1955.