The "June Drop."



I am sending four peaches which are falling off the trees. Can you tell
me how to prevent falling of the fruit next year and what causes it?

It is impossible to tell from the peaches which you send what caused
their falling. Where fruit passes the pollination stage successfully, as
these fruits have, the dropping is generally attributed to some
conditions affecting the growth of the tree, which never have been fully
determined. It is of such frequent occurrence that it is called the June
drop, and it usually takes place in May in California. As the cause is
not understood no rational preventive has been reached. A general
treatment which consists in keeping the trees in good growing condition
late enough during the previous season, that is, by seeing to it that
they do not suffer from lack of moisture which causes them to close
their growing season too soon before preparation for the following
year's crop is made, is probably the best way to strengthen the tree for
its burden.



Trees Over a Gravel Streak.



I have an apricot orchard seven years old. Most of the land is a fairly
heavy clay with a strip of gravel in the middle running nearly north and
south. The trees on the clay bear good crops, but those on the gravel