Utah Science

Volume 8 Number 3 Article 1

9-1947

Farm & Home Science Vol. 8 No. 3, September 1947

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PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE UTAH AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION

September, 1947 wnber 3 Pumping Ground Water Has Twin Benefits Well Systems on California, Arizona Patterns Might Solve Both Irrigation And Drainage Problems in Parts of Intermountain Region

By O. W. ISR AELSEN

/ Dr. O. W. lsraelsen, research professor of irrigation and drainage at the Utah Ag­ ricultural Experiment Station, has long been recognized as one 0/ the We t's leading authorities in both of these fields. His research laboratory is the country it elf.

URING the past quarter century, Pumping water for irrigation from turies, with man or animal,dri en pump D the pumping of ground water has wells and surface supplies is of course similar to those shown in figure 2 and become a major activity of irrigated agri, not a discovery of the past quarter cen' 3 accompanying this article. But it i culture. Its signincance in the western tury in the United States. In the older in this country that motor,driven pump states where irrigation water is essential countries, it has been practiced for cen' have seen their chief development, cuI, to crop growth may be illus' minating in modern turbine trated by a brief calculation: pumps like the one hown If the 54,000 wells in Ari, in ngure 7. During recent zona, California, Colorado, years, there has been are' Idaho and Utah were to be markable increase in use of pumped simultaneously into these pumps, driven by hi h, a common stream, the result, lyefficient vertical sha.ft elec' ant tlow would be 73,700 ~Li,", h10tOL.;,. cubic feet per second, which Arizona and California is more than nve times the have led the general U. S. requirement of all the irri, increase in use of thes gated land in Utah. pumped wells. Pinal Coun' The major source of such ty, Arizona, for example, a tream would be Califor' more than doubled its num' nia, where in 1940 there ber of wells during the 1920, were 48,568 pumped wells. 1940 period; Madera Coun, Colorado had 2,878, Arizona ty, California, did the same' 1,858, Idaho 309 and Utah and Fresno County, Califor' 286. For each acre of irri, nia, increased its pumped gated land, these wells gave wells from 2300 in 1920 to California a pumping capac' 9000 in 1940. ity 50 times that of Utah; Every irrigation farmer Arizona a capacity 35 times who has been near pumping that of Utah, and Colorado operations or talked about one four times greater. Ida' them knows that low,cost ho's is slightly less than Drought emergency well No. 19 poured 11 c.f.s. into Salt Lake electrical power makes for county's East Jordan Canal in dry 1934. T he water supplement was Utah's. vital to farmers (Continued on page 8) Wanted: Better Utah Vegetable Crops

HE UTAH Agricultural Experi, truck crops fitted to Utah's climate; First; evidence of achievement: in T ment Station's youngest depart' (3) To put the production of vege­ 1940, the year following establishment ment - vegetable crops - has some of tables for marketing on a firmer basis, of the vegetable crops department at the Station's biggest ideas. Its staff is improving shipping as well as process­ Logan, there was no celery shipped out concerned with making Utah's youthful ing standards; of the state. This year, several hundred vegetable industry grow. (4) To establish a vegetable seed in­ carloads of Utah celery will move to To that end, Dr. Leonard H. Pollard, dustry in the state and, in the process, surrounding population centers. That's head of the small but vigorous "vege to determine the fundamental problems not counting onions and lettuce. crops" staff, outlines their work this of seed production in the intetmountain Second, enthusiasm of associates: Dr. way: region. E. Milton Andersen, associate professor (1) To develop new vegetable vari, No small proposals these, Dr. Pollard on the staff, has spent the summer com­ eties better suited to Utah growing con' admits. But he can point to some evi­ muting from Logan to the Farmington ditions; dence of their achievement and to the experiment farm where extensive studies (2) To help vegetable processors find enthusiasm of his associates in support of canning and freezing crops have been the best methods of handling the many of the plan. (Continued on page 4)

PolJard-Professor Andersen-Associate Hawthorn-Collaborator Leonard-Farm Director

Agronomy Reins Change Hands of Brigham. He graduated at USAC in 1933 and at Iowa State College in 1936, NE OF THE Station's longest-ser' extension service, first as a county agent before three years of teaching and re' O vice staff members, Dr. R. ]. leader and then as director of the divi­ search in the Midwest and Southwest. Evans, this summer moved up to emeri­ sion. Then for six years he was a farmer For a year he was assistant professor of tus status, with Dr. D. Wynne Thorne on his own, coming back to the college soils at Iowa State and for two years taking his place as head of the Agron, in 1931 to be head of the Agronomy he was associate professor of agronomy omy Department. Department. After 16 years at this post at Texas A. &1 M., al­ Dr. Evans came to he became professor emeritus of agron­ so spending two sum' the Station first in omy this year. mers as a research as' 1912 to take charge Dr. Evans' major investigations for sociate professor at of dryland crop in­ the Station have been in alfalfa breed­ the University of vestigations. He had ing, pasture betterment, clover growing Wisconsin. been raised in Lehi, and weed control, and he will continue Dr. Thorne came Utah, and had taken to work with alfalfa strains, his special­ back to Logan in degrees at U.S.A.C. ty. In addition, he will still draw upon 1939 as associate to and Cornell Univer­ his reservoir of agricultural knowledge Dr. Evans. His re' sity. Since then he for some teaching. search studies have has filled important Dr. Evans Asked whether he will vacation or Dr. Thorne been primarily in soil positions in all three follow other interests, Dr. Evans said, fertility and the rela, divisions of Utah's land-grant institution ~'I haven't yet had the time to decide tion of plant nutrients to irrigation and - the college, the extension service, and what to do with my extra time." other agricultural practices. Both men the experiment station. His successor, Dr. Thorne, is also a have contributed to the Station's bulle, From 1913 to 1924 he worked in the Utah native, raised in Perry, just south tin series and to the Quarterly.

2 Farm and Home Science Study of Plant-to-Man DDT Cycle Begins

NE OF THE most thorough,going problem of the distribution of DDT in entomologists; and Professor George O projects put on the Station's re' the animal body after it is ingested. Is Bateman, dairyman. search calendar this year will seek to all of it inactivated by the liver, which Under terms of the grant, the Station determine the safety of using insect,con, is the organ normally carrying out in' will employ assistants in dairy and ani, trolling DDT on plants eaten by animals activation of toxic substances? Is it elim, mal husbandry, veterinary medicine, which produce food products for man. inated from the body as a waste prod, biochemistry and physiology. The study, supported by a research uct? The $12,495 grant made by the fed, grant from the National Institute of "Does it pass into the animal tissues eral agency is evid~nce, observers say, Health, U. S. Public Health Service, from the bloodstream? Does it appear that the U. S. office is particularly in' will be directed by Dr. Clyde Biddulph, in the various animal products such as terested in the matter because of the research associate professor of physi, the milk of cows or the eggs of chick, public health problem that may be cre' ology. His associates in the project will ens? If DDT does appear in these ani, ated by the wide use of such a chemical range from entomologist to biochemist, mal products-and there is some evi, as DDT on forage crops. Information so that the insecticide may be traced dence already that it does-what harm' should become available on the possible through the whole cycle of its effect. ful effects might there be upon human harmful effects of this powerful insecti, Already the project has aroused in' beings consuming these products?" cide upon health of the community be' terest, since DDT treatments were ad, To learn answers to these and other fore dusting becomes too widespread, ministered to test plots of a forty' acre questions, a project has been planned Station officials believe. alfalfa field earlier this season to provide that will extend over a period of two "Interest and support of research such forage for the feeding experiments that years, with DDT dusted alfalfa fed ex' as that displayed by the public health will follow. As shown in the accom' perimentally to dairy cows, beef cattle, service are essential if practical applica, panying picture, the insecticide was sheep, swine, chickens and turkeys and tion of new scientific knowledge is to markedly effective in protecting the also applied to vegetable crops. keep pace with scientific discovery," crop from both the alfalfa weevil and Station men who will participate in states Dr. Biddulph. the Lygus bug. the study with Dr. Biddulph are Dr. However, as explained by Dr. Bid, Louis L. Madsen and Dr. Lorin E. Har' Aerial view of the Station's 40-acre alfalfa dulph, "the introduction of DDT onto ris, animal nutritionists; Dr. Delbert A. field shows benefits of DDT-dusting. The dark plots are good alfalfa, which received plants that are consumed by farm ani, Greenwood, biochemist; Dr. C. I. Dra' DDT, while the blank spaces were virtually mals and poultry has raised the question per, poultryman; Dr. Wayne Binns and stripped of plants by the Lygus bug and of possible toxic effects of DDT residues Dr. M. L. Miner, animal pathologists; the alfalfa weevil. The dusted forage will be fed to test animals to determine DDT's in such animals. There is the further Prof. C. J. Sorenson and F. V. Lieberman, after-effects FARM AND HOME SCIENCE New Federal Research Program

Published Quarterly by the Utah Swings Into ·Gear Agricultural Experiment Station Logan, Utah UST BEFORE its recess, the 80th agricultural products. Among Station R. H. WALKER, Director J Congress appropriated nine million projects which will be supported in part GLADYS L. HARRISON, Editor dollars to start an agricultural research by the new federal funds and in part STAN ANDERSEN, Acting Editor program which should eventually raise by state appropriations are the beef, Address correspondence regarding material all levels of U. S. agriculture. cattle breeding project begun previously appearing in these columns either to the editor Signed by the president July 30, the on a $10,000 gift from the Sears Roe.. or to the author. buck Foundation; insect control and dis, More detailed information on the subjects fund bill gave the go ... ahead srgn to the discussed here can often be found in Station Agricultural Research and Marketing eases of celery; the effect of chemical bulletins and circulars or may be had through (Hope ... Flannagan) Act passed a year composition of soils and plants upon correspondence. ago. Its effect on Utah agricultural in' the nutrition of animals and man; func, College series no. 775 vestigations will be felt directly, accord ... tional requirements of rural housing in ing to Dr. Rudger H. Walker, dean of Utah, and the housing of dairy cattle. the USAC School of Agriculture and It is also anticipated that the Station . Vegetable Crops director of the Agricultural Experiment will cooperate with the state and fed, eral departments of agriculture and the (Continued from page 2) Station. USAC Extension Service in additional under way; Prentice Leonard, superin, Dr. Walker was one of nine commit.. marketing research, services and educa.. tendent of the Farmington land, is keep' teem en who met in Washington, D. C., tional activities. ing 75 acres in shape for field research; last month with the act's administrator, and Leslie R. Hawthorn, U. S. Depart, E. A. Meyer, to recommend to the Sec' As a result of the new federal allot, ment of Agriculture horticulturist, is retary of Agriculture projects which will ment of funds along with ordinary ex' working closely with Dr. P llard to de' put to best use the $625,000 earmarked pansion of Station activities, seven new termine the best ways to grow vegetable for cooperative research among state ex, men have been added to the Station seed in the mountain area. periment stations and the U. S. Depart' staff this summer. With those three, Dr. Pollard feels he ment of Agriculture. This is one.. fourth Three will join the agricultural eco, has a department directly able to show of the two and a half million given to nomics faculty to help the research in that vegetable growing can be a major states for research in the basic laws and marketing agricultural products. They Utah farm activity. principles of agriculture. are Dr. V. L. Israelsen, USAC graduate Of the vegetables under present Sta, The Hope.. Flannagan appropriations who has been tax and rental analyst for tion study, onions have the greatest for this fiscal year also provide three the Federal Public Housing Authority Utah acreage and celery the highest per' million dollars for USDA research into in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and West acre value; the vegetable crops men the utilization of agricultural products Virginia; Dr. Ellis Lamborn, USAC think that these and other vegetables for industrial or non,agricultural uses; graduate who received his doctorate at will continue to grow in Utah farm im, one and a half million for basic, problem Cornell University last June; and Dr. portance. They have found, for in ... research by the USDA in cooperation Roice Anderson, who has held a post stance, that lettuce plants may be "over, with state stations, and two million for at the University of Wyoming. wintered," giving them an early enough marketing studies in which the USDA Bliss H. Crandall, another USAC start to make a good head crop in May may ask cooperation of state stations graduate, will come to the Station Sep' and a good seed crop in August. They and departments of agriculture. tember 1 to take charge of a new sta, believe that an earlier'maturing Lima In the western states, according to tistical laboratory which will serve all bean may give good yields under inter' Dr. Walker particular 'emphasis will go departments of the Station. In addition, mountain growing conditions. A seed, to the marketing of such agricultural he will teach courses in biometry, design to,seed method of carrot production products as livestock, turkeys, wool, of experiments and genetics. He has may greatly benefit that crop. Better dairy products, apples and peaches. been at the University of Nebraska in methods of processing vegetables like Other cooperative studies will involve charge of alfalfa breeding studies for peas and corn should help canners and nutritional deficiency surveys, rural the U. S. Department of Agriculture. housing, dairy farm structures, beef freezers of these crops. Three men have been transferred to cattle breeding, dairy cattle breeding, tation and college work from the ex" So altogether, the vegetable crops turkey breeding, and the introduction men expect to have busy days. And tension service. They are W. H. Ben' and testing of new and useful plants for nett, who was extension agronomist they know they have a going concern. industrial as well as agricultural uses. until July 1; Dr. E. Milton Andersen, According to Dr. Walker, the Utah who was extension horticulturist, and Mrs. Gladys L. Harrison, Station bulletin editor who ordinarily supervises Farm and Station will receive $14,654.56 of the Dr. Carl Frischknecht, who was exten, Home Science, is taking a long-deserved va­ 1947 ... 48 fund for basic agricultural re, sion poultryman. All three will teach cation in the Midwest and her native Spring­ search, with at least 20 percent to be ville this summer. She will return to Statjon college classes as well as undertake Sta, duties September 15. spent in the study of marketing Utah tion research.

4 Farm and Home Science Sugar Beet Growing Takes Balanced Effort

By ERNEST M. MORRISON

Labor Requirements ARMERS in the State of Utah pro' Professor Morrison, a native 0/ Tremonton, has been on the tation and college staff since Since labor costs represented 55 per' F duced 414,730 tons of sugar beets 1945, specializing on research in sugar beet valued at $4,211,307 in 1945. According production. He is preparing a more complete cent of the cost of producing sugar to census data sugar beets occupied ap' account 0/ his finding in a bulletin to be re­ beets, a description of the labor item proximately 2.5 percent of the total leased soon. would be helpful. The most important cropland harvested and represented operations were topping and loading, and fees. Labor costs, which are the about 15 percent of the total value of blocking and thinning, and hoeing. If most important item in sugar beet pro' farm crops sold. In terms of income, profitability of the sugar beet enter' duction, are computed at the average as compared to all crops sold in 1945, prise is to be increased, one possible of the farmers' estimates or 63 cents sugar beets represented 21 percent of approach to the task would be to de' per hour in 1945. No attempt was made crop receipts in Box Elder County, 23 crease costs, and since labor is the in the study to include time or wages percent in Cache, 19 percent in We' most important cost item, it is logical to for performance of the managerial func, ber, 17 percent in Davis, 14 percent in conclude that any consideration which tions. The operator's time is calculated Salt Lake, 13 percent in Sanpete, 8 per' would reduce the time required to pro' as that of a laborer only. The family cent in Utah, and 48 percent in Sevier. duce the crop without neglecting any labor and hired child labor was can' of the important operations would in' The general importance of sugar beet verted to a man equivalent by allowing crease profitability of the enterprise. production in Utah's agriculture, the Yz man equivalent for a 12'year'old boy This being true, the hopes for decreased concern in many quarters about its fu' and adding Va for each year beyond 12 labor requirement are focused on the ture, and the general interest of leaders years. Averaging the labor of the oper, in agriculture and industry have always three items listed above, i. e., topping ator and his family and all hired labor and loading, blocking and thinning and kept alive demand for information rela' including Mexican nationals and pris­ tive to costs and methods of produc, hoeing. Mechanization of these opera, oners of war on the 161 records to' tions on a favorable operating cost basis tion, time and effort required, and net gether, it took about 55 minutes to drill returns from sugar beet production. might greatly affect the costs of produc, an acre of beets, the beet thinners tion of this important crop and improve Studies have been conducted in the past thinned about 0.4 of an acre in a ten­ to keep this type of information current, its competitive position with other hour day, the topping crew topped and crops. but the last extensive study was made in loaded about 0.4 tons per man per hour Combination Affecting Net Returns 1923 by the U. S. Tariff Commission. or about 4 tons per man per ten-hour In the winter of 1945 and 1946 the De' day. In this study it was found that partment of Agricultural Economics of the larger farms were more efficient as the Utah Agricultural Experiment Sta, Receipts and Net Returns sugar beet producers, and that the larger tion conducted a study of the economics The receipts per ton of sugar beets the enterprise the lower the costs per of sugar beet production in Utah during amounted to $12.20, of which an aver­ acre and the greater the profits per ton. 1945. age of $9.43 was the payment received Costs per ton decreased from $9.14 to In 1945 the average cost of producing from the sugar factory, $.35 per ton was $8.36 as the size of the enterprise in' a ton of sugar beets was $8.69 when av' the average value of the tops as cattle creased from 5.1 to 22.7 acres. The data erage yields of 15.2 tons per acre were feed estimated by the operator on the indicated, however, that the size of the obtained. This is according to records basis of actual fall pasture prices for beet enterprise was most profitable when it taken of 161 farms growing 5 acres or fields, and an average of $2.42 repre, did not exceed about 25 percent of the more of sugar beets. The farms included sented the government support payment total cultivated land capable of produc, in the study were in Cache, Box Elder, in 1945. ing sugar beets. and Utah Counties. Costs per ton on It should be noted that cost items do As would normally be expected, the the 161 farms studied ranged from $5.43 not include cost of management, a con­ yield of beets per acre greatly influenced to $19.86. tribution of the enterprise to the general financial success. As the average yields Of the average cost per ton of $8.69 farm overhead, or any change in land increased from 10.6 tons per acre to approximately 55 percent or $4.75 was value as a result of having produced a 19.6 tons, costs per ton decreased from the cost of man labor, 18 percent or crop of sugar beets. Using the cost fig, $11.00 to $7.62 per ton and net returns $1.55 was the overhead costs including ure as described above and the total re' increased from $1.63 to $4.84. Yields interest on the money in the crop, ceipts as just itemized, the net returns were in turn dependent upon percent equipment operating costs, and land, per ton amounted to $3.51 when the av' of stand, the amount of fertilizer ap­ water, and drainage taxes, 16 percent erage enterprise was 10.7 acres per farm, plied, the number of cultivations, and or $1.40 was power costs including the average yield was 15.2 tons of beets perhaps other factors whose effects were horse, tractor, and truck power, and the per acre, and an average of 115 hours of not measured in any way. remaining 11 percent or $.99 was the man labor per acre was expended. n The fertility level of the beet land cost of materials going into the produc, an acreage basis the net returns amount­ that is affected by the application of tion of a crop including fertilizers, seeds, ed to $53.46. (Continued on page 16) for September, 1947 5 Flourides Offer New Hope for Sound Teeth

By D. A. GREENWOOD

MONG the factors which influ~ A ence the development of good teeth- elements of balanced diet, regu~ FLUORINE'S MAJOR PREMISES TO DATE lar brushing, frequent visits to a compe~ 1. The element fluorine is very active chemically and its compounds are quite tent dentist-one of relatively recent in~ widely distributed in minerals, foods and water vestigation is now emerging as markedly 2. The controlled intake of fluoride compounds provides one method of re­ effective. This is the controlled body ducing the rate of tooth decay intake of fluorine compounds. 3. Fluorine compounds in very small amounts can be added to the drinking water, as supplements to fuods, dentifrices and mouth washes Especially during the period of calci~ 4. Due to the poisonous nature of fluorine compounds, great caution should fication of the teeth, fluoride intake has be exercised in their use. been found beneficial in reducing the incidence of dental caries C'cavities"), long the most common defects of man~ kind. The purpose of this article is to Dr. Greenwood, professor of biochemistry on small amounts of fluorine in drinking review briefly the study of fluorides in the Station staff and former researcher at Uni­ versity of Chicago, wrote in the June issue of water that incidence of tooth decay may this connection. this publication a general article on factors be reduced, investigators have found. First of all, fluorine itself is known affecting tooth decay. Here he considers the Officials of the U. S. Public Health Ser~ as one of the most active of elements. evidence about a newly-studied preventative. vice have reported considerably fewer Like its sister, chlorine, it is so active dental Hcavities" in communities where ders, bones, and, notably enough, fruits chemically that it has never been found water supplies contain certain levels of and vegetables which have been sprayed free in nature. Fluorine compounds­ fluorine. Now they know that 1 p.p.m. with fluorine~bearing insecticides and fluorides, however, are quite widely dis~ of fluorine in drinking water produces then not washed adequately. tributed on the earth's surface. Among a mild type of dental fluorosis in about them are fluorine~bearing minerals used In addition, water containing fluorine 10 per cent of children consuming it in concentrations of 1 p.p.m. or above in large industrial processes, principally and a significant reduction in the tooth~ fluorite or fluorspar, containing calcium occurs in many areas of the United decay rate among all consumers. States and other parts of the world. and fluorine; cryolite, containing sodium, Two splendid publications contain the aluminum and fluorine; apatite, contain~ Most instances of fluorine intoxica~ evidence of several investigators in this ing calcium, phosphorus and fluorine, tion have resulted from accidents where field. They are "Fluorine and Dental and sedimentary phosphate rock, con~ fluorine~containing insecticides, like rat Health" (1942) and "Dental Caries and taining phosphorus compounds and flu~ poison, were ingested in large quantities Fluorine" (1946), published by the orine. by mistake. Sodium fluoride, sodium American Association for the Advance' Large deposits of the latter-phos~ fluosilicate, hydrofluoric acid and hydro~ ment of Science. It is not possible to phate rock-are found in Colorado, fluosilic acid were the compounds most review all of these reports here, but Florida, Idaho, Montana, South Caro~ frequently involved. some of the major findings are the fol~ lina, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming, and In any case, the first detectable symp~ lowing: in other parts of this country and the tom of chronic fluorine poisoning be~ Studies conducted at the University world; phosphates as fertilizers are com~ comes apparent in the teeth, which pro~ of Minnesota have revealed that the monly known. But one of the main vides us a back~door entrance to the enamel of decaying teeth contains less problems in utilization of these phos~ value of fluoride intake for good teeth. fluorine than that of sound teeth be~ phates for plant and animal nutrition is This first symptom is a hypoplasia of longing to the same person. The enamel removal of excessive fluorine. Among the teeth which has been called mottled of teeth affected by rampant "cavities" the biological effects of fluorine first ~ enamel or dental fluorosis. Grayish~ was found to contain only three,fifths noted was its toxicity in too great quan~ white blotches or chalky areas occur the fluorine (69 p.p.m.) found in the tities, for both plants and animals. Some over the surfaces of all the teeth, and enamel of sound teeth (111 p.p.m.). of the early workers with the element most of them become pitted. This con~ The average fluorine content of the den ~ reportedly lost their lives because of dition is accentuated in many cases by tin of decaying teeth was 159 p.p.m., this, and many acute cases of fluorine discoloration ranging from light brown while the dentin of sound teeth con~ intoxication have been noted. to almost black. Such damage ordinar~ tained 169 p.p.m. (Dentin is the hard The element is present in many foods ily occurs during calcification of the substance forming the base for the as well as minerals, of course. In most teeth, in man during the first eight to crown of the tooth.) foods containing it, the fluoride content nine years of life. Further, bacterial counts in the saliva • varies from "traces" to 10 p.p.m. (parts These deleterious effects have been of children from communities where per million), with 1 to 2 p.p.m. being produced by the consumption of drink~ fluoride (0.5 to 1 p.p.m.) was present most common. The foodstuffs contain~ ing water containing 1 p.p.m. or more of in drinking water have been found ing the highest quantities of fluorides fluorine, during the period of tooth cal~ lower than counts in communities with are certain teas, phosphate baking pow~ cification. However, it is by presence of no fluoride in drinking water. Since

6 Farm and Home Science there is a close correlation between bac, ceived the sodium fluoride ration or terial counts of the saliva and incidence only the basal ration brought to the of dental caries, the comparison between calcium and phosphorus content of the fluoride and non' fluoride areas suggests bone meal powder or defluorinated that the decay'stopping properties of phosphate. fluoride waters may be partially ex' The use of purified bone meal powder plained by their action on the bacterial as a means of reducing dental decay in flora of the mouth. man is being investigated. On this assumption, intermittent, From all the studies it is clear that brief applications of fairly concentrated this hyperactive element will have more fluoride solutions (0.1 to 2 per cent) to and more to do with lowering the inci, tooth surfaces have been used to control dence of tooth decay. The odd thing dental decay. In humans as well as ex' about it is no longer its effect, however. perimental animals, substantial decreases It is the forepart of fluorine' tooth decay have been produced by this method. cycle that is uncertain. As yet, nobody Repeated applications of fluorine com' knows the exact mechanism by which pounds to the teeth could be made by fluorides make teeth better. the use of fluorine'containing dentifrices It may be that fluonne's introduction or by the occasional use of a fluorine' changes the composition of the teeth, containing mouthwash. making them more resistant to mouth Other investigations, conducted at acids; reduction of the number of bac, the Naval Medical Research Institute, terial organisms in saliva may be the have revealed that the addition of 1 to major mechanism; fluorine may reduce 20 p.p.m. of fluorine (in sodium fluor' the capacity of carbohydrate enzymes ide) to acid beverages used as soft which cause tooth decay. Those are drinks diminished the severity of tooth the main theories. Fluorines effect may "etching" by the sugar' acid solution. result from a combination of all three These experiments were made on rats causes. and puppies. Whatever its key cause, there is More exhaustive studies have been enough confidence in the process that made on dogs at the University of Chi, five cities have added 1 p.p.m. of fluor' cago. There, scientists noted the com' ine (as sodium fluoride) to their drink, parative effects of fluoride feeding ing water. Thus far, the only western through purified bone meal powder, de' city to make the trial is Evanston, Wyo' fluorinated phosphate and sodium flu' mingo It will take 10 to 15 years to de' oride. The different fluorine' containing termine all the effects of the city,wide supplements were fed different dogs at programs. levels of five milligrams per kilogram Meanwhile, as stated previously, flu' (2.2 lbs.) of body weight, mixed in a orine compounds are very poisonous basal ration daily. (The basal ration and should be handled with care by contained commercially prepared dehy, trained persons. The United States drated dog food [Pard], fresh beef lungs Food and Drug Administration limits [from a U. S. inspected plant], evapo, the amount of fluorine which may be rated milk [Carnation], codliver oil, and sold in foods and drugs in interstate low,fluorine Chicago city water.) commerce. The illustrations accompanying this Pictures from the Journal of Dental Research article show the resultant conditions in show effects of variant fluorine-feedings on dogs at the University of Chicago. (1) representative dogs who received the Teeth of control animal, which received differing rations. Puppies fed five milli, only basal ration for 435 days, show hypo­ grams of sodium,fluoride per kilogram plastic defects in enamel; (2) Addition of low-fluorine-containing compound of cal­ of body weight, daily during the period cium and phosphorus failed to stop hypo­ of calcification of their teeth, developed plastic defects in teeth of second dog; (3) dental fluorosis and stored excessive This dog received the basal ration plus suf­ ficient defluorinated phosphorus to provide amounts of fluorine in their bones. 5 mgm. fluorine per kgm. body weight. Other puppies fed the same amount of Though teeth were entirely free from ana­ fluorine as it occurs in purified bone tomic defects, the dog died of respiratory infection after 189 days; (4) Basal ration meal powder and defluorinated phos, plus sufficient bone flour to provide 5 kgm. phate did not develop dental fluorosis of fluorine per kgm. body weight, for 437 or store excessive fluorine in their bones. days, made teeth well formed and free from anatomic defects with a minimum of su­ The teeth of 20 dogs fed the fluorine perficial staining; (5) Dog receiving basal in bone meal powder and of 11 dogs ration plus enough sodium fluoride to give a like amount of fluorine for 387 days de­ fed it in defluorinated phosphate were veloped teeth with areas of defective and superior to the teeth of those who re' stained enamel

for September, 1947 (Figure 1 on page 1.) Fi~es 2 and 3 how "primitive" pumps operated by manual power-men or beast9--in Mexico (both pictures courtesy M. R. Huberty, Univer­ sity of California). In figure 4 (lower left) is shown typical housing for a pumped well in Salt River Valley, Arizona. This well delivered. 9.6 c.f.s. in 1946. Figure 5 shows a Salt Lake county well under con- truction. San Joaquin Valley pumps are mostly like the one shown in figure 6, which works through a vertical shaft driven by a turbine motor. Another of Califor­ nia's modem pumping plants under test in figure 7 illustrates progress made in uti­ lization of ground water for irrigation and control of the water table. "Specific capac­ ity" governs succe of a pumping project

The Soil Conservation Service esti, Irrigation AND Drainage mated recently that 8,000,000 acres of the 17 Western .,States need improved (Continued /ram page 1) District in California. The average sp drainage, as e first step toward ef, low,cost pumping. Fewer realize that cific capacity was 58 g.p.m. per foot; th fective al 1 can rol and maintenance pumping costs depend al a upon the average total pump lift was 70 feet and of pr ctivit on low, lying, arid,re, water yield of each well per foot of the average, overall plant efficiency was O'i¢1ands. The main defect of present drawdown, and on the pump and motor 52.4 per cent. drainage systems is failure to lower the efficiency. When wells of similar high capacitie general water table to adequate depth, The number of gallons per minute and pumping efficiencies are developed deli ered by a pumped well per foot of 'n Utah, the advantages of pumping most arid'region drains being too shal, drawdown, called the "specific capac' ground water will become apparent in low. ity," depends not only on the perme, two major agricultural concerns of the Pumping ground water for irrigation ability of the earth into which the well stat~irrigation and drainage. in some areas has simultaneously 10\N is sunk but also on the design, construc, farmers, especially those who ered the water table greatly and solved tion and development of the well. Some remembe routh years -are aware of the drainage problem. standard for good specific capacity may the value of e a sources of irrigation be drawn from Arizona and California water. The v..alue £ pumping ground Utah has 37 drainag districts, with reports. Recently, 122 Arizona well, test water for drainage is nearly as great, millions of dollars inve ed in drainage records were analyzed and it was found and it will become increasingly more facilities but there are still more than that in 72 per cent of the wells the so. This is the thesis for it: 10 000 acres not adeqtrn.tely drained. specific capacity was less than 100 g.p.m. Nearly every large irrigation project The experiences of one California per foot; in 9 per cent it ranged from in the West has some lands that require irrigation district and of the Salt River 100 to 150; in 15 per cent from 151 to drainage; likewise, most of the pioneer Valley Water Users Association in Ari, 200, and in 4 per cent it was greater irrigated valleys need drainage on the than 200. More adaptable are reports lower lands. This places perhaps one' zona are helpful in suggesting the work, from 646 pumped well tests made from third of all the irrigated land in need of ability of ground'water pumping in the 1943 to 1945 in the Madera Irrigation some drainage t be in with. Utah drainage situation. From 1907 to 1922, the Modesto Irrigation District in California spent $356,000 for construction and main' tenance of regular gravity drains for 45,000 acres. N. M. Cecil, engineer for the district, described the 1922 condi, tion this way: "Sub,irrigation had prevailed for sev' eral years and in many locations where the rich soil had previously produced abundant crops, yields decreased, or' chard trees died and vines withered, for the alkali salts had become sufficiently concentrated to render the soil unfit for plant growth." for irrigation. At the rate of 1.36 per creased and the water table depth ha That year, 1922, the Modesto group acre foot, the 1940 evaluation of water also greatly increased. drilled its nrst drainage well, and by in the Modesto district, the pum ped In 1946, the association operated 200 1939 had put into operation 77 pump water used for irrigation (where gravity pumped wells, drawing up 400,000 acre' wells, reaching a combined capacity of drainage could not be brought) had a feet of water, nearly one,third of its 207 cubic feet per second. value of $612,050, entirely offsetting all irrigation water supply, and the average The total cost of construction for drainage pump costs. (Utah water gen, depth of the water table was greater wells, pumps and discharge pipe lines erally costs from $1.00 per acre foot up than 50 feet. e of the mOQern pump' over the 17'year period was $159,000, to $3.00 for storage water in July and ing plants now operating ther'e is shown as compared with $308,000 for con' August.) in figure 4. struction of the gravity drains. The op' The Modesto experience leads to the While the Salt River pumps are work, eration'maintenance cost for the pump conclusion that the operation of deep' ing at considerable depths, it is import' system was $60,050, comparable to well pumps is not only a most satisfac, ant to remember, of course, that ground $148,700 spent on the gravity drains. tory method of sub,surface drainage, water reservoirs are exhaustible. The The electric power to operate the pumps but also a self,liquidating project. objective of irrigation enterprises should cost $393,100. Around Phoenix, Arizona, irrigation be to pump each year, on the average, On 50,000 acres subject to Modesto's was greatly advanced in 1911 by com' the voluIJle of water that can be added high water table, then, the drainage, pletion of the Bureau of Reclamation to group.d water reservoirs either by pump cost per acre was $12.24, counting Roosevelt dam and reservoir. Drainage natural infiltration through the soil or $4.38 for construction, maintenance and didn't become a problem there until by artifl ial recharge. In this way, the operation and $7.86 for power cost. about 1918; then the Salt River Valley ground servoir will remain a This is a third more than the $9.13 per Water Users Association decided to natural resource of great wiue. acre expended for gravity drains. But pump ground water. Utah irrigato s and owner~ of wet a drainage,pump advantage has not yet The association pumped 50,000 acre' lands that ne drainage a becoming been accounted. feet in 1920 and again in 1921. In 1922, more and ore intereste in pu~ping During the period in which the dis, it increased the drain to 100,000 acre' the ground water. M nly theY need trict operated the pumps, a total of 602" feet, and the menacing water table be' to find favorable gra el formations in 000 acre feet of water has been pumped gan to go down. Since then, the volumes whicl;l wells of adequate capacity and and about 75 per cent of that water used of water pumped annually have in' (Continued on page 11) A New and Better Onion is Born --- Maybe

By STAN ANDERSEN

N A 30 by 60,foot plot behind Utah ciently, were carrying a yellow dust Now ·crossing two plants capable of I Agricultural College's library a new from one set of blooms- the male par' pollinating themselves requires removal and better strain of Sweet Spanish on' ents-to the other-the female parents. of the male factors in one of them. The ions may have been born this summer. Their cross' pollination job was finished set of blooms thereby made incapable But if it was, nobody-not even the at the end of July. of self'pollination will have to take its men who arranged its birth-will know And that gives Dr. Pollard and Dr. germinating pollen from the other set about it for at least two years, and they Clarke more than 300 separate batches of blooms. won't be sure until a year or so later. of hybrid onion seeds to harvest this With corn, removal of pollen'pro' Onion hybridization takes its own good fall. One of the batches migh,t contain ducing "anthers" is easy. They occur time, plant germ plasm being what it is. the parents of bigger Sweet Spanish in the "tassel," quite separate from the You see, humans and animals don't onions adapted to Utah growing condi, female parts in the cob. "Emasculation" have a corner on hereditary features. tions. If so, housewives will still cry is just a matter of clipping off the tassel. Plants too tend to pass their character' over them, but onion,growers will smile. Development of hybrid corns went istics on to their offspring through ele, Onion crossing on this scale is a rela, ahead rapidly several years ago. ments of germ plasm called genes, as tively new thing in the plant improve' But with onions, where male and fe' in genetics. Creating a hybrid onion, ment world. It's this way: male factors grow side by side in the then, involves the rearrangement of Plants like onions or corn, when they blooms, emasculation is not so easily onion seed genes. bloom, ordinarily pollinate themselves, performed. Heretofore, before two Onion seed genes, of course, are producing inbred strains of their own blooms could be crossed, the anthers of pretty frail items. But in the outdoor varieties. Seeds from an inbred line one had to be painstakingly plucked out. laboratory at the USAC their rear' steadily lose the original vigor, but two 111 multi,flower onion blooms there are rangement has been guided by two men or more lines may be crossed and result hundreds of anthers, and each one is who know nearly as much about onion in a hybrid even more vigorous than only about one,fifth as big as an eye' germ plasm as do the onions themselves. the parent plants. brow hair. The anther,plucker had to And the onion'wise geneticists have had be a surgeon with tweezers. A single several thousand helpers in their little Dr. Clarke, left, and Dr. Pollard guided "cross" took so much care that hybrid houseflies into cheesecloth compartments plot-namely, houseflies. to cross-pollinate enclosed onion blooms. onion seed production was entirely too The two men are Dr. Alfred E. They will harvest several hundred batches expensive for commercial possibilities. of hybrid onion seed this fall in hopes of Clarke, associate cytologist for the U. developing a better Sweet Spanish onion In other words, the door to better field S. Department of Agriculture's plant in' for intermountain fields onions was locked. dustry station at Beltsville, Maryland, and Dr. Leonard H. Pollard, head of the USAC Department of Vegetable Crops and research associate professor in the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. During July, their project was chiefly characterized by having exhausted vir' tually all of the cheese, cloth sources in Logan stores. As a result, people driving along the Logan canyon highway a few hundred feet from the experimental plots saw what at first looked like a field of enormous white lilies. The plot was in one of the college's traditional flower' garden spots, some may remember. Each "lily" here, though, was a care' fully built cheese,cloth compartment containing two onion blooms and sev' eral flies. One of the onion blooms was growing from a stalk rooted in the ground; the other's stalk was drawing sustenance from a bottle of water, having been moved from the place w here it was rown. The flies, unwittingly but efIi,

10 ican Horticultural Science Society's Vaughan research award for their ef.. forts. They had learned how the char.. acter that permits a potentially perfect flower to perform only female functions is inherited through seed. Hybridization aimed at bettering the field run of all onions could go ahead. To make it go ahead faster, Dr. Jones has sent varieties of his male .. sterile seed to agricultural experiment stations in 12 states representing all the important onion .. producing areas in the country. Crystal Wax to California, Bermuda to Texas, and Sweet Spanish-native of intermountain country-to Idaho, Colo .. rado and Utah. In the Logan plot, Dr. Pollard and Dr. Clarke are working on both the ele .. mentary and advanced phases of Sweet Spanish development. First, they're con" tinuing the Beltsville effort to turn out a Sweet Spanish onion with all the good characteristics of the variety plus the male .. sterile factor. Second, having some seed that is close to that ideal, they are (As diagrammed by Dr. Clarke in the 1943-47 Yearbook of Agriculture) staging the first •• out.. crosses" of Sweet Spanish onions that may add size, vigor, A botanical misfit turned the lock. and the combination of 13 .. 53 and Lord disease resistance, color, uniformity, And it was Dr. Clarke's present USDA Howe Island provided the world's first taste and early maturity to the variety. chief, Dr. Henry A. Jones, principal commercially available hybrid onion No, they don't expect to remove the horticulturist at Beltsville, who found seed . .called California Hybrid Red No. tear,jerking genes just yet. that fortuitous misfit-a male .. sterile on.. 1, it was introduced cooperatively by So far, Dr. Jones' 'nation'wide onion' ion plant. the California Agricultural Experiment improvement staff has brought only the Dr. Jones was head of the division of Station and the USDA in 1944. first hybrid to the commercial seed'pro' truck crops at the University of Cali .. The original male .. sterile line of Ital.. duction stage; another is just about fornia when he encountered the off.. ian Red wasn't useable for betterment ready, also coming out of California. breed onion. In experiments with a of all the varieties of onions, however. The Logan experimenters recall the batch of Italian Red Bulbs, he watched For instance, poor storage qualities of steady buzz of their entrapped flies and some of them unaccountably produce the spindle .. shaped 13 .. 53 may be trans.. calculate hopefully. plants on which no seed developed. mitted through the hybrid seed along They had failed to manufacture their with better parent characteristics. own pollen, evidently coming to abo .. Pumped Wells So before the male .. sterile condition tanical dead .. end street. (Continued from page 9) could be of full use in onion improve .. But one of these seedless plants, the moderate draw .. down while pumping ment, it had to be brought about in one with the pedigree number 13 .. 53, may be installed. A Salt Lake county other varieties without the Italian Red differed from the other sterile ones in well of fair capacity is shown during its device. In an article for the 194 7 Year" that the seed heads were packd with construction period in figure 5. book of Agriculture, Dr. Jones and Dr. small sets of bulbils-miniatures of reg .. In Cache county, an experimental Clarke put it this way: ular onions. These bulbils could be drainage well constructed in 1930 yield, planted like flower bulbs, and thus other "We needed female plants in white ed a stream of 40 g.p.m. per foot of plants likewise incapable of self.. pollina .. and yellow varieties, in the early and draw,down and delivered a stream of tion were grown. late varieties and in the storage types, 4.5 c.f.s. With these plants researchers had so that hybrids of all commercial types One of several successful wells drilled onion blooms on which anther.. plucking would be available. The method of de .. in Salt Lake county during the very dry wasn't necessary, since the anthers veloping female lines in aU types of year of 1934 is shown in figure 1. broke down of their own accord before onions was finally worked out." There is an urgent need for more de .. producing pollen. Just as when Hemas .. Their statement is a modest one, rep .. tailed and reliable information concern" culation by tweezer" is carried out, the resenting years of painstaking, tedious ing the design and the capacities of germinating influence had to come from work-uwork," says Dr. Clarke, "that pumped wells for irrigation and on the other plants. some of us believed could never suc" lowering of the water table by pumping With ease, then, Italian Red could be ceed." But it did succeed, and the two ground water. But clearly it is a most "out.. crossed" to better varieties. It was, Beltsville workers in 1943 got the Arner .. promising activity for Utah farmers. for September, 1947 11 ((Leaf Crinkle" Spread Can Be Checked By B. L. RICHARDS and ARTHUR S. RHOADS EAF CRINKLE is one of the most This is the fourth of a series of articles on bly related to Crinkle. Crinkle in Maz­ viru di eases of stone fruits prepared for Farm L widely known and generally dis­ and Home cience by Dr. B. L. Richard head zard seedling is a common phenomenon. distributed diseases of the sweet cherry. of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathol­ Distribution and Prevalence The disease has been reported from the ogy, and Dr. Arthur . Rhoad 0/ the U. . Bureau of Plant Industry, oils and Agricul­ Pacific Northwest, from Intermountain tural Engineering. Dr. Rhoads was formerly In surveys conducted over the years states and from British Columbia. It connected with the Emergency Plant Disease from 1938 to 1944, Crinkle has been has become especially well-established in survey, U ..D.A found to occur rather generally through­ Utah and must be considered one of the known virus diseases it has, on the other out Box Elder, Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, most serious diseases affecting the sweet hand, been demonstrated repeatedly Utah and Washington Counties. The cherry in the state, and it is on the in­ that buds used in propagation from incidence and percentage of this dis­ crease in many Utah cherry growing crinkle trees will invariably reproduce order in five counties are shown in Table areas. the disease. In one experiment, for ex­ 1. The percentage of trees for anyone While our knowledge regarding the ample, 100 seedlings were budded with county, however, does not give a true Cherry Leaf Crinkle is far from com­ Bing buds from a tree showing Crinkle picture of the seriousness of the Crinkle plete, enough is known to indicate that Leaf with the result that 87 of the buds problem. Individual orchards may be­ the disease is not contagious, and there­ survived and produced tree. All 87 come unprofitable if too many trees with fore, losses and continued spread of the trees developed 100 percent Crinkle. Crinkle are included in the original disease are entirely unnecessary. Leaf While Crinkle is readily perpetuated by planting. In one orchard in Box Elder Crinkle of the sweet cherry can be con­ budding or grafting from affected trees, County crinkle trees were reported to trolled. It is the purpose of this article scion wood from normal trees grafted the extent of 60 percent, and practically to indicate how Leaf Crinkle can be on crinkle branches will produce nor­ every afHicted tree was a total loss. In recognized, how it can be effectively mal shoots which continue to make another orchard at North Ogden in eliminated, and how further serious normal growth indefinitely. Crinkle-af­ Weber County, where Crinkle was spread of the disease can be prevented. fected scion-wood grafted on normal prevalent to an unusual extent, the dis­ Nature and Cause trees does not cause other parts of the ease occurred on 39, or 10.8 percent of Leaf Crinkle is probably not of virus trees below or above the graft unions 361 bearing trees. In the main part of origin, although it resembles in many to develop the disorder, even after the one poorly cared for orchard at Hurri­ respects some of the virus diseases com­ lapse of several years. This is further cane in Washington County, where the mon to stone fruit. It has not been ex­ evidence that in Crinkle we are not deal­ incidence of crinkle was appallingly perimentally transmitted from diseased ing with an infectious disease as is the high, it was found occurring in 115, or to healthy trees and, therefore, is ap­ case with the viruses, but with a phe­ 36.5 percent of 315 trees. Another or­ parently not contagious. Like deep su­ nomenon that is closely allied to the chard in this same area involving 29-odd ture of the sweet cherry, Leaf Crinkle inheritance mechanism of certain por­ trees showed 23 with the disease. The is considered to be more of the nature tions of the tree itself. table shows that the average incidence of a frequently occuring mutation or Crinkle is frequently found in Maz­ of Crinkle in Washington County was bud port rather than a transmissible zard and Black Tartarian seedlings indi­ vastly greater than in any of the other disease. Many instances have been ob­ cating that the factor for Crinkle is in four counties. It is quite likely that the served where Crinkle has appeared on the embryo, or that the disease may pass bud source provides the real explanation one or more branches of Bing cherry through the seed from the crinkle plant for this difference. trees that were known to be previously to the offspring. In one orchard at La­ free from it. Verkin, Washington County, Utah, it Below, to the left, a healthy Bing cherry leaf is placed beside three mottled and di torted . Thus it seems that the di ease may was noted that of 77 Black Tartarian by Crinkle. On the right are four of the develop spontaneously at most any time seedlings of varying sizes, 18 showed Black Tartarian variety, in which Crinkle during the life of a tree. Althou h distinct Crinkle, and that 10 other ex­ Mottlinm is not as marked. Leaf distortion is noticeable, however, in comparison with Crinkle is not transmitted like the well- hibited leaves of an abnormal type possi- the healthy leaf on the right Above, right, are four Bing cherries from entirely from diseased buds are invari, (1) bud selection, (2) roguing, (3) sur' healthy branches in the top row, and four from Crinkle branches in the bottom row. ably affected throughout. In cases where gery, (4) top working of affected trees. Early inhibition of growth ,on the. ~utur.e a greater proportion of the tree is af, 1. Bud Selection: the fact that crinkle side along with a 'peaked condillon IS fected, the general appearance of the buds invariably give rise to crinkle clearly evident. In the picture to the left, tree is so distinctive as to be easily de' normal Bing cherries :tt t~e of harve~t are shoots demands the most rigid selection in the upper row, with diseased, pomted, tected from a distance. of the bud wood to be used for propa' mottled fruit in the lower row Affected trees often show a very gating purposes. Both growers and nur' striking and erratic distribution of crin, serymen should learn to recognize Crin, Survey studies definitely show that kled leaves. Cases have been noted kle symptoms in the leaves of various large numbers of crinkle trees have been where crinkled foliage occurred toward varieties even in their mildest form of distributed throughout the cherry,grow, the ends of limbs and again farther expression. It is essential to avoid bud ing areas of Utah as a result of careless back, with normal foliage in between. wood from trees which show any signs and indiscriminate gathering of bud, The reverse of this situation has also of crinkle whatsoever or even from trees wood, both by nurserymen and growers. been observed, where normal foliage in such a state of culture that disease Again it has not been uncommon in the occurred at the ends of the limbs and symptoms cannot be detected. Freedom past to find crinkle trees occurring in again farther back, with crinkle foliage from disease can best be assured by the commercial nurseries. in between. Trees with the foliage se, establishment of an official and effective How to Recognize verely crinkled throughout the crown inspection and certification service. may have several scattered branches with 2. Roguing: Trees on which the ma' Crinkle in the sweet cherry is charac, normal foliage scattered through the in' terized by a distinctive deformity of jor portion of leaves show Crinkle are terior of the crown. One forked tree invariably unprofitable and should be both leaves and fruits as well as a gen, was observed in which all the foliage on eral unproductiveness in severely af, rogued out or top,worked. Mazzard one of the two trunks of the tree was seedlings to be used for root stock fected trees. Leaves are variously mis, severely crinkled, while that on the shapen and small, narrow and usually should be rigidly inspected and all af, other was entirely normal. fected plants destroyed. In like manner, wedge' shaped at the base, with irregular Fruit on trees severely affected by margins extremely dentate and irregular. all trees should be inspected at a period Crinkle are characteristically malformed, most favorable for observing leaf symp' Highly irregular, often streak, like chlor, being more or less flattened and ridged otic areas, extending in the general di, toms, and crinkle plants rogued out. In on the surture side and generally more this connection, certification for free, rection of the lateral veins, develop on cone'shaped or pointed than the normal either side of the midrib (figs. 1 and 2). dom from Crinkle should be included fruit (figs. 3 and 4) . in the State certification program. In milder cases the leaves appear to be The fruit on affected trees ripens un' 3. Surgery: Crinkled shoots and affected principally along the margins. evenly, and in certain fruit varieties the branches sh6uld be pruned out. There Occasionally one half of a leaf may be mottling or splashing is more prominent is no reason for preserving affected generally affected and the other side (fig. 4). Affected fruits are often borne branches. Many trees partially affected free, though greatly reduced in size. at an angle from the fruit stems (fig. 3). The extent to which trees are affected can be saved and converted into good by Crinkle varies greatly. In many How to Control producers by proper pruning early in cases, where the disorder apparently is The non,infectious nature of Crinkle, the life of the tree. of recent origin, crinkle leaves may oc, the fact that it does not spread through 4. Top-working: Top working of a cur on a single spur or on but one or the infected tree, together with the fact severely affected tree to the same or perhaps a few branches of a tree, the that it may appear spontaneously in ap' other desirable variety may be a means foliage being normal throughout the parently healthy trees of certain varie' of eliminating crinkle and saving time balance of the tree. In fact, all grada, ties, provide the essential bases for con' in producing a profitably producing tree. tions of Crinkle may occur, from trees trol. That it is always bud,perpetuated Such top working, if effective, must be in which only a single spur is involved must be kept in mind. To control Crin, done as early as possible and only with to those trees in which every leaf may kle Leaf of the cherry, one or all of the buds and scions known to be free from exhibit the disorder. Trees propagated following operations may be involved: any suggestion of Crinkle. for September, 1947 13 T ornato Canker Control Requires Vigilance

By H. LORAN BLOOD

ACTERIAL CANKER was origi, Dr. Blood is a plant pathologist for the Divi­ should be insisted upon. Even the best sion of Fruit and Vegetable Crops and Diseases B nally described as the "Grand Rap' in the U.S.D.A. Bureau 0/ Plant Industry, Soils and most effective treatment cannot be ids Disease of Tomato," by Dr. Erwin and Agricultural Engineering. In Logan he relied upon to produce seed as free from is engaged in cooperative research with the contamination as seed would be if taken F. Smith who, in 1909, made the first Station. studies of the disease as it occurred in a from a source that is free from disease. 112,acre field near Grand Rapids, Mich, in 1933 to about 1.3 percent in 1934. It is recognized, however, that it is not igan. In a text book, published in 1920, The disease began to decline in im, always possible to obtain seed from ab, Dr. Smith changed to the more descrip, portance as the fermentation method of solutely clean fields. Inspection services tive name, bacterial canker. Between seed extraction became more' widely are maintained by a number of states, 1918 and 1928 the disease increased in adopted. Gradually, information on pos' whereby fields of the more widely plant' severity until it was serious in practically sible seed treatments such as hot water, ed varieties of canning tomatoes being all of the tomato'producing sections of acetic acid, alcohol, and dry heat, and grown for seed are inspected during the the country. By 1927 it had developed the beneficial effect of bichloride of mer' season and the seed certified as coming to serious proportions in Utah. cury and the New 1m proved Ceresan from a field showing none, or only a After the discovery of the relation of treatments became known. The use of trace of the disease. The value of this fermentation to seed infestation by the these treatments contributed, also, to certification depends upon the standards canker organism, it became evident that the general decline in the prevalence of which govern the inspection and the the sudden up' surge in the occurrence the disease. Even so, serious damage is thoroughness with which the inspection of the disease during the period of in' reported occasionally by growers in cer' is made. Because of very apparent dif, dustrial development following World tain localized areas, although proper ficulties in determining whether a field War I might be accounted for by two control measures have been used. These is free of bacterial canker contamina, trends in seed production. First, many sporadic outbreaks are annoying, trou' tion, all seed should be treated at least of the seed growers who wished to cut blesome, and serious to the growers and with a surface disinfectant as a matter production costs had turned from fer' canners involved. They indicate, also, of general policy. mentation to entirely mechanical seed that all the factors influencing the de' Seed Treatment velopment of the disease have not been separation; second, canning companies, When valuable seed stocks become defined clearly enough to be brought also from motives of economy, began to infected, and clean seed sources are not under control. While the-disease is not use seed washed out of the pulp residue available, it becomes necessary to at' now of the same national importance issuing from the machines used to ex' tempt to clean the seed stocks by treat' that-it was in the early part of the last tract tomato juice for processing. In ment. decade, it is still a major disease of the the West, we discovered that seed lots The ability of the bacterial canker tomato in some sections and requires extracted by such measures were usually pathogen to penetrate the developing constant vigilance in the production of contaminated. The situation continued ovule through the vascular system re, tomato seed and plants if disastrous to get worse until, by 1933, the disease suIts in the presence of this organism losses are to be avoided. had become serious enough to threaten within the seed coat, as well as on the the tomato industry. Control of the Disease surface of the mature seed. The pres' Following the publication in 1933 of Measures have been developed that, ence of the surface fruit spotting is im, the report of the discovery that losses if properly applied, should reduce, if portant as an indication of the presence from the disease could be greatly re' not practically eliminate, this disease as of the pathogen in the field; but any duced, if not eliminated, in seed lots ex' a factor in tomato production. The in' seed festation that may have come from tracted by fermentation, many of the cidence of disease has materially de' fruit spots will be on the surface of the seed producers of the West returned to creased in Utah, even though the recom, seed and can be taken care of easily by the use of fermentation vats, and can' mended measures have not been fol, any of the surface disinfectants. The ners began to see the danger of using lowed as carefully as they should have infection that is carried within the seed seed salvaged from the waste of their been. However, constant care must be is the most difficult to handle and this processing operations. One canning exercised in the production of seed, in occurs only on plants that are system, company in Utah which had always the extraction of that seed, and in the ically infected by the pathogen. The produced its own seed and was losing growing of plants from that seed, or plant upon which spotted fruit is found from 15 to 25 percent of its acreage else the disease will reappear in a de' is not always systemically infected, and every year, adopted the fermentation structive form. all infected plants do not have spotted procedure and reduced its losses to an Good control depends upon carefully fruit. Infection within the seed coat insignificant trace the following season. following three essentials: (1) the use takes place through the vascular system In fact, only one diseased plant was of clean seed; (2) the use of clean seed, of the fruit and has no direct relation, found in its entire contracted acreage. bed soil; and (3) the use of a clean field. ship to the surface spots. To obtain The disease'control activities of this Clean Seed clean seed from infected sources, it be' company alone reduced the incidence Whenever possible, seed produced on comes necessary, therefore, to apply a of the disease in the state from 8 percent clean fields, free of canker infestation, treatment that will destroy the pathogen

14 Farm and Home Science within, as well as on the surface of the within the prescribed bounds and the have not been determined experiment, seed. seed is immediately dried at a moderate ally. Clean seed may be obtained from in.. rate in warm air. Old seed is most likely Our experience of last year will illus' fested fields by roguing all diseased to show reduced germination after treat, trate the problem. We planted seed of plants before harvest, and by ferment' ment. the same extraction in a seedbed at ing the macerated pulp of the fruit har, Seedbed Treatments Farmington, Utah, and a seedbed at Lo, vested from such fields for 96 hours be' Seedbed sanitation is always import' gan, Utah. The plants from the Farm' fore extraction. If this is not done, the ant in the production of vigorous to' ington bed were set in a field at Kays, seed should be soaked for 24 hours in mato seedlings. Extra attention in seed, ville, and the plants from the Logan bed a 0.9 percent solution of acetic acid im .. bed management is required for the con' were set at North Logan. Over 90 per' mediately after extraction. Either one trol of bacterial canker. When even a cent of the untreated check plants from of these procedures is recommended as slight amount of the disease is known the Farmington bed developed canker, a general practice in seed production to have occurred in plants from any while less than one percent of the un' whether the seed is taken from clean or seedbed, that bed should be thorouglUy treated check plants from the Logan infested fields. reconditioned by replacing the old soil bed developed the disease. Soil and Seed extracted by mechanical means with clean soil to a depth of at least 10 plant,bed characteristics must be respon, without fermentation, and treated im .. inches. The frames and cover& should sible in some way for this difference in mediately, before drying, by soaking for be washed and the subsoil thoroughly response. The nature of the field soils 24 hours in a 0.9 percent solution of drenched with a solution of formalde, may have affected the results, but it is acetic acid, should be dried in the sun hyde prepared by combining one gallon felt that the characteri tics of the seed, or in a current of warm air immediately of commercial (40 percent) formalde' bed were more important. The nature after treatment. The seed may be treated hyde and 24 gallons of water. If manure of the soil and the temperature and hu, loose or loosely confined in a cheese A is used to heat the bed, care should be midity within the bed at the time the cloth bag to facilitate handling, and taken to be sure that it is free from to' seed is germinating and the plant is should be thoroughly agitated as it is mato plant debris of any kind. emerging are suspected as contributing immersed, to insure uniform wetting at When soil in coldframes, hotbeds, or most to the response obtained. the beginning of the treatment. Use greenhouse benches cannot be replaced, acid free of all impurities in preparing it may be disinfected by drenching with Selection of Field the treating solution. A 0.6 percent so' a formaldehyde solution of the strength Any field that has grown bacterial lution of acetic acid should be used for indicated above. To treat the soil, ap' canker,infected plants should not be the treatment of seed that first has been ply one quart of solution to each square used to grow tomatoes again for at least dried without treatment following me' foot, water heavily, and cover with bur' three years. A longer crop rotation per' chanical extraction. Heavier concentra' lap or canvas for five days. Then re, iod is preferable, because it assures a tions of acid reduce viability below the move the covers, work up the soil to margin of safety from the disease and point of safety. The procedure other' hasten the escape of the formaldehyde is much better from the standpoint of wise is the same as for freshly extracted vapors and allow to stand for at least general farm practice. The field should seed, except that the agitation at the 10 days before planting. Since formal, be kept free of weed hosts of the dis, time of immersion should be more thor, dehyde is very toxic to living plants, it ease during the rotation period. The ough to insure complete and uniform should never be used where the fumes bacterial canker pathogen is known to wetting of the dry seed. All acid treat' will reach plants growing in the vicini, be able to survive in some soils for at ments should be conducted in a cool ty. This treatment has not always been least two years. It may survive for long' place at a temperature of 70° F. or be' fully effective, but, in general, it will er periods under favorable conditions, low, and should continue for 24 hours. greatly reduce the likelihood of infec' especially if weed hosts of the disease The treatment should be prolonged for tion from the soil. are present in the field. The assumption a few hours if mean temperatures of Open,field plant beds should not be is that the organism will survive in soils around 60° F. prevail during the treat.. located in the same plot of soil for more until all infected tissues, whether tomato ment. than one year. Growers who use open' plant or weed, are entirely disintegrated. These treatments have been effective field beds should, if possible, adopt a Whether the organism will survive in in controlling the disease under Utah rotation system that will move the beds soil independent of host'plant tissue is conditions. Other treatments may prove to new soil every year and avoid pre' not known. Preliminary tests indicate to be more effective in other areas and viously used soil until the fourth year. that it will not. may be substituted for the acetic acid The same results have not always If the recommendations outlined treatment if it is found desirable. been obtained with infected seed from above are carefully followed, the loss All these treatments, with few excep' the same source planted in different from bacterial canker can be reduced to tions, have completely eliminated the in' seedbed soils, and even in soils from the a level of little or no economic import' fection in seed taken from diseased same source used under different condi, ance. It cannot be too strongly stated plants under Utah conditions. tions. Infected seed may be planted in that constant vigilance must be exer' Seed obtained by the fermentation two different soils or in soil from the cised in the selection and handling of extraction procedure or treated with one same source under two different condi, seed stocks, the preparation and man' of the chemical or heat treatments is tions and a high percentage of disease agement of seedbeds, and the selection likely to exhibit some reduction in germ' be obtained from one and a lesser per' and preparation of the soil for field pro' ination. However, this reduction will centage, or even none, be obtained from duction if the crop is to be kept free not be great if the temperatures are kept the other. Here again the reasons why of the disease and losses avoided.

: for September, 1947 15 Research Grants Speed Station Studies The Utah Agricultural Experiment tion and the Utah Canners Association. is being sponsored by the Utah Power Station's research program has been This money is to be used for the study and Light Company as part of this re' given additional impetus this year by of the influence of fertilizers on the search program. special research grants from both public yield and quality of tomatoes and peas. and private agencies. The work will be done at the Farming' Sugar beets are •receiving exhaustive The various funds permit study of ton Sub,Station. Dr. H. B. Peterson and study at the Station with the help of several intermountain agricultural prob, Dr. E. Milton Andersen are the lead, $9000 in grants from the Beet Sugar De' lems which, Station officials believe, will ers in charge. Gordon Van Epps, grad, velopment Foundation, the Amalga, materially benefit farmers of the region. uate in agronomy, 1947, has been ap' mated Sugar Company and the Utah, pointed to a research fellowship to as' Idaho Sugar Company. The jointly,sup' sist with the work on this project. ported project, now in its second year, One is the Kennicott• Copper Com' has the aim of determining the best pany's grant of $50,000 for research in A research grant• of $10,000 has been combination of soil moisture, fertility fields related to soil fertility and utiliza' made by the Utah Power and Light level and plant spacing, with experi, tion of mineral products in agriculture. Company to the Utah Agricultural Ex' ments going on this year near Tremon, Results of these studies, being con' periment Station. The purpose of the ton. In addition to the money grants, ducted fTo1l' several standpoints. mtly grant IS to Improve agncultural condi, the contributors are giving the Station have considerable significance in Utah's tions in Utah with specific reference to advisory aid. Dr. mer]. Kelley and mine,agriculture economy. improving soils by learning more about Dr. Jay 1. Haddock, federal collabora, how to drain effectively at low cost . tors in the Station's agronomy depart' A grant has been• received by the This project, under the direction of Dr. ment, are project leaders. Utah Agricultural Experiment Station O. W. Israelsen, is for a two'year dura' in the amount of $450 each from the tion. Mr. Sterling Davis has been ap' During the past• two years the Na, Utah Canning Crops Growers Associa, pointed to a research fellowship which tional Livestock and Meat Board has sponsored a national meeting of research Sugar Beets Mean Steady Work workers who are engaged in nutritional studies with meat and meat products. (Continued from page 5) new methods in handling the crop, and Dr. Ethelwyn B. Wilcox, who is leader barnyard manure was evidently suffi, in this case a mechanical topper was of the Agricultural Experiment Station ciently well maintained with an appli, used only experimentally. It was noted project, "Effect of various factors, in' cation of about 9 to 10 loads per acre. in connection with mechanical power, cluding freezing and cooking proce, Applications of manure up to this however, that costs of production were dures, on the nutritive value of lamb," amount had a tendency to improve the reduced and economically performed by has participated in the national confer' yields and profit and decrease the costs, the use of power equipment to perform ences sponsored by the National Live' while applications beyond this seemed the operation for which efficient rna' tock and Meat Board. not to increase yields but did reflect chinery has been developed. higher costs and lower profits because I t is generally accepted as a sound In 1945 Swift and• Company donated of the added time spent in making the principle in agricultural production that to the Utah Agricultural College $20, heavier applications. the greatest success attends the producer 000 to be used during a period of five The sugar beet crops that were culti' who does consistently well in all phases years for financing a fundamental study vated up to 7 times per season seemed of his production or pays particular at' on "Nutritional deficiencies in range to rt..tw-n greater pr fits than tho e ~ul ' tention to doing a good job in all dc, f rage and tlle tiupplementary feeding tivated less often. partments. In sugar beet production, of range livestock." This research is sometimes cost items such as labor, There was a definite association be' being carried out as a cooperative pro' power, overhead, water, etc., are disre, tween the amount of time that was ex' ject between the Animal Husbandry garded in an attempt to produce out' pended in the production of the crop Department under Dr. Louis 1. Madsen standing yields. Under some conditions and the yield. The average expenditure and the Range Management Depart' it is uneconomical to push production of about 115 hours per acre with sugar ment under Dr. 1. A. Stoddart. Exten' past a certain level, and likewise under beet yields of 15.8 tons per acre seemed sive collections have been made on im, most conditions it would not be good to give the greate t net returns per ton. portant forage plants grazed by sheep management to sacrifice some items of on the spring, summer and winter It was noted from the study that operation in the interest of reduced costs ranges. Chemical analyses are being other than substituting tractor and truck per ton. The present study indicates made on the portions of the plants con' power for horse power, very little that the proper combinations of the fac' sumed. From these studies supplemen .. change has been made in the past 30 tors going into the sugar beet crop are tary feeding trials will be carried out years in the methods or practices in important and the proper balancing of with the view of improving the nutri, sugar beet production. Of the 161 all the factors reflecting in the costs of tion and production of range sheep and farmers contacted in connection with production are es.sential to financial suc, making better the utilization of range the study, only one had employed any cess in sugar beet production. forage.

16 Farm and Home Science