All Issues

Pressure injection of an antibiotic into pear trees now can be accomplished quickly. University of California researchers have evaluated several types of iniection eauhment in three vears of experiments, and a practical machine for field use is described in this article.

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) has proved to be a remarkable success in the seven years it has been in operation in California. EFNEP was set up as a joint effort of the federal, state, and county governments to help families acquire knowledge and skills to improve the nutritional quality and adequacy of their diets. The program focuses on families living in poverty or near poverty, especially those with young children.

Laundering may cause considerable abrasion on fabrics, which can appreciably shorten the wear life. The reaction of detergent builders with hard water ions may cause a deposit to build up on fabrics during repeated launderings, and such a deposit could affect the amount of abrasive damage to fabrics.

Physical damage, which has a major effect on fruit quality and market loss of fresh market tomatoes, can occur throughout the distribution system between field and consumer. As part of an effort to improve retail quality of fresh tomatoes, studies were conducted to identify the type and amount of physical damage, factors that render fruits more susceptible to injury, and symptom development as related to temperature, storage, and fruit maturity.

Freshly harvested lettuce seeds often fail to germinate under favorable temperature and moisture conditions-a failure called post-harvest or after-ripening dormancy. In most varieties, such dormancy decreases during storage; storage time needed depends on variety, percentage of moisture in seeds, field temperature at seed maturation, and possibly other factors. Post-harvest dormancy can be largely overcome by pre-chilling moist seeds for five days at 12° C.

Recent heavy summer rainfall throughout California has resulted in an exceptionally early start to germination of annual range plants. Since annual plants must start anew from seed each year, very early germination raises questions concerning the potential depletion of the soil seed supply, survival of seedlings, and forage productivity.