All Issues

For many years downy mildew—blue mold—on spinach has caused serious losses to growers and processors wherever spinach is grown. In a search for resistance, two primitive weedy spinach strains from Iran were found to be completely immune to the disease.

Wetting agents are being marketed as means of increasing water infiltration of soil. At present no recommendation either for or against their use in irrigation water can be made that will cover every soil condition. However, certain effects of wetting agents on water entry are known, and these indicate conditions under which wetting agents are most likely to be beneficial.

A program of brushland conversion from chaparral cover to the more useful cover of grass and clover has been in progress in California for several years. In many situations, prescribed burning is used to accelerate brush disposal. Because of the hazards involved, prescribed burning is performed under specified conditions of temperature, humidity, season of the year, and with approved fire-crew supervision.

The Old Home pear variety is resistant to fire blight and pear decline, has a well-shaped trunk, a good scaffold system, and is easily propagated on its own roots by hardwood cuttings. For these reasons, Old Home stock is expected to be of even greater value to the pear industry in the future than it has been in the past.

Attention has recently been focused on bud variations in standard citrus varieties. This has been brought about largely by the occurrence and recognition of variants which have had one or more undesirable characteristic from the standpoint of what is recognized as typical and desirable fruit of each variety.