Calag Archive

These results indicate that ratings of honey bee colonies based on bee numbers and brood area, were most useful in predicting the pollen-collecting activity by those colonies when the rating was done within 21 days, or one brood cycle, of the pollination period. The rating criteria correlated closely with the pollen collection of honey bees in this experiment. The results of this experiment demonstrated that tools are available now for stimulating an increase in honey bee populations, and for estimating relative pollination capabilities of bee colonies. The advisability and methods of use rest in the hands and imaginations of beekeepers and growers of bee-pollinated crops.

Test results reported here indicate that deep, permeable, medium-textured soils can be expected to outyield soils of heavy texture or of restricted depth. Also, heavy-textured, basin clay soils can be expected to outyield restricted-depth, claypan soils. The Olcott soil series appears poorly suited to sugar beet production.

Investigations on the control of the sunflower moth, Homoeosoma electellum (Hulst), conducted over several seasons indicated that certain insecticides can satisfactorily reduce sunflower head and seed damage when multiple applications are properly timed. Of the commercially available materials tested, endosulfan and diazinon afforded the most efficient control. Treatments must begin at onset of bloom, and three applications at intervals of 5 to 7 days gave optimum results. Two applications were the minimum required, but three were generally needed because of the fast head growth, quick flowering, and concentrated egg deposition during this period. The biological agent Bacillus thuringiensis, was found unsatisfactory for control. Only GS 13005 (of several new experimental chemicals tested) gave outstanding control. One larva could severely damage nine or more seeds, and moderate to severe infestations of 12 to 24 larvae per head caused serious seed loss. Pesticide control was usually necessary, but the actual amount of damage varied from season to season.

Four factors appearing to be associated with attitudes of community residents toward OEO-financed housing facilities for migrant farm workers and their families are: (1) type of primary source of income in the community; (2) resident property ownership; (3) distance of the housing facility from crops being harvested; and (4) distance of the facility from centers of population. Early community involvement and planning contributed greatly to creating and sustaining successful relationships within the rural area.

Higher barley yields per acre, along with preferred malting characteristics, are possible through properly balancing nitrogen fertilizer applications with prior cropping and soil management patterns. The recently introduced 6-rowed malting varieties, Larker and Traill, showed the greatest nitrogen yield response, and malting quality was least adversely affected by the highest rate used. The release of the 2-rowed malting variety, Firlbecks III, along with Larker and Traill, provides northern California barley growers with a choice of malting varieties which are directly competitive with the high-yielding feed variety, Wocus. All are significantly higher yielding than the formerly popular 2-rowed Hannchen. Stiff-strawed Firlbecks III minimizes the lodging problem so characteristic of the older, 2-rowed Hannchen. Larker and Traill may shatter if grown in districts with windstorms at harvesttime.

Approximately 350 acres of alluvial valley soils in southern California are being lost to urbanization each day according to estimates by the University of California Agricultural Extension Service. Whether or not this loss of the better agricultural lands continues at the same rate, it is a fact that less desirable upland soils are already being developed for citrus as well as for other crops. Much of the area being planted in Riverside and San Diego counties includes rolling soils underlain at various depths by bedrock. The type of topography characteristic of these upland areas is shown in the photos.

To facilitate mechanical harvesting of olives by trunk or limb shakers, and increase fruit removal, research has continued toward reducing the fruit-stem attachment force. Previous studies in California have shown that ascorbic or iodoacetic acid are effective in reducing the attachment force of olive fruit, but only when applied under conditions of very high air moisture. Attempts at artificially increasing the humidity surrounding the trees during or following spray application have been unsuccessful. The addition of surfactants or penetrante has not enabled use of ascorbic or iodoacetic acid to effectively loosen olive fruits under the low humidity conditions which prevail during the table olive harvest season in California.