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Under crop production controls in effect January 1, 1955, California's cotton allotment was 778,686 acres – compared with the 1954 allotment of 936,408 – a reduction of around 158,000 acres. The acreage in cultivation on July 1 was 906,700.

Control of European red mite—Metatetranychus ulmi Koch—is one of the major problems of pear and apple growers.

Concern that customary handling and cooling methods—developed for wooden containers—might result in unsatisfactory cooling when applied to fibreboard containers led to studies of cooling measurements with plums and pears at Davis.

At least half of the more than 12 million coniferous seedlings planted in California during the past five years failed to survive their first summer in the field. Part of this failure can be related to factors such as rodents, livestock, and competing vegetation. On the other hand, there are many instances where the reason is not apparent; not even the long summer drought nor the high temperatures associated with California's Mediterranean-like climate are satisfactory explanations.

Big vein of lettuce occurs every year in California, especially in the spring crop of the central coastal area where practically 100% of the plants in some fields are affected.

Strawberry plants of the Lassen variety—dug in February and stored at 28F-30F until planted in August—produced as well the following spring as April plantings.

Avocado varieties found unsatisfactory—for growing in the experimental orchard at Riverside—are changed by grafting or topworking the trees. Topworked trees have ranged in age from six to 10 years.

The imperative need for new avocado rootstocks—with disease resistance and other desirable characteristics, such as dwarfing habit—is the reason for a program of introduction and establishment in California of many avocado forms and botanical relatives.

In many avocado orchards, the tips of the leaves—and in severe cases the leaf-margins also—become brown as the leaves reach full maturity. Tissue-yellowing usually precedes the leaf-burn, and the extent of leaf-burn depends on the nature of the seedling variety and concentration of chloride in the leaf tissue.