Show THE SAN JOSE SCALE How to Avert Its Introduction Into This State The Alabama agricultural experiment experi-ment station has just issued a very I timely bulletin upon this pernicious pest and as it contains many practical suggestions as to how to keep this pest I out of the state we copy largely from the bulletin for the benefit of Utah fruit growers That this terrible pest of the orchard has already gained a foothold in many eastern and southern states is now an assured fact Not only is the occurrence occur-rence a matter of vital importance to every orchardist and nurseryman at home on account of its destructiveness but late laws passed and pending in several states relative to this insect I will make it imnossible to ship from infested localities to those states This bulletin is published for the purpose of informing fruitgrowers regarding the very serious nature of this pest and warning them that unless its appearance appear-ance is carefully watched for and immediate im-mediate steps taken to destroy it the destruction of infested trees perhaps whole orchardswill surely follow KINDS OF TREES ATTACKED This scale has been found on most of the fruit trees grown in the United States It will also attack currant and gcoseberry and even the pecan and English walnut Some of its most destructive de-structive occurrences have been in orchards of apple peach pear and cherry APPEARANCE AND PART OF TREE ATTACKED The congregated scales produce a dirty whitish flyspecked appearance usually on the barkin bad cases also on leaves and fruit Although the scale is a very small one yet the greyish scurfy appearance of the bark will call attention to its presence HOW IT IS DISSEMINATED Probably the principal agent in the distribution of the San Jose scale over the United States has been nursery stock There should be laws in this state as there are already in some others not only compelling owners oC orchards to do all possible towards eradicating the pest where it occurs but prohibiting the transportation or sale of infested nursery stock or fruit in the state Such a law should certainly cer-tainly be aut into effect at once before be-fore the insect has spread beyond all hope of control Some other states may have abundant cause for extreme re gret that they did not enact the necessary I neces-sary laws in time for as ir New Jersey and Ohio the laws come too late to act as a preventive Prevention in this case is comparatively cheapcure very j I costly This matter is most earneslv recommended to the careful attention I I of orchardists and legislators ITS DESTRUCTIVENESS I Relative to the unusual destructiVeness destructiVe-ness of this insect we cannot do better than quote Mr L O Howard government govern-ment entomologist under whose direction direc-tion it has been carefully investigated He says There is perhaps no insect capable of causing greater damage to fruit interests in the United States or perhaps the world than the San Jose or pernicious scale It is not striking I in appearance and might often remain i unrecognized or at least misunderstood misunder-stood and yet so steadily and relentlessly relent-lessly does it spread over practically prac-tically all deciduous fruit trees trunk limbs foliage and fruit I that itis only a question of two or three ears before the death of the I plant attacked is brought about and the possibility of injury which from experience with other scale enemies of deciduous plants might easily be ignored ig-nored or thought insignificant is soon startlingly demonstrated Its importance impor-tance from an economic standpoint is vastly increased by the ease with which it is distributed over wide districts through the agency of nursery stock and the marketing of fruit and the extreme difficulty of exterminating it where once introduced presenting as I it does in the last regard difficulties not found with any other scale insect I The Los Angeles Horticultural commission I com-mission reported in 1S90 that if this pest be not speedily destroyed it will utterly ruin the deciduous fruit interests inter-ests of the Pacific coast Its capacity for evil has been more than demonstrated demon-strated since its appearance in the east and it has been if anything more disastrous dis-astrous to the peach and pear orchards J of Maryland New Jersey and other I I eastern and southern states than in I California and the west I We are therefore justified in the assertion as-sertion that no more serious menace to the deciduous fruit interests of this country has ever been known There is no intention here to arouse unnecessary I unneces-sary alarm but merely to emphasize the importance of taking the utmost recautions to prevent its introduction into new localities and to point out the extreme necessity of earnest effort to stamp it out where it has already gained a foothold I WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT If scales of any sort whatsoever are I found in the orchard send samples to this office at once see last page for identification There are several scales I in the east which very closely resemble the San Jose scale but which are not so destructive in character This point should be determined at once The orchard I or-chard should be kept free from scales but in no case is the necessity for immediate im-mediate action so urgent as with the San Jos scale Tf n trot is had h Jiffpotpd nif it down at once and burn If the top only i is affected cut off and burn treat the trunk remaining with whaleoil soap and retop bv grafting Webster Otherwise the best and simplest remedy rem-edy in the east is probably a winter wash of whaleoil soap This should be thoroughly applied at the rate of two pounds dissolved in one gallon of water with a spray pump brush or swab once or twice during the winter and again before the buds begin to swell in the spring Webster and Smith The whaleoil soaD can be ordered from Leggett Brother 301 Pearl St New York City It is sold in barrels of about 4f > 0 pounds at 4 cents per pound in boxeJ of 100 pounds at 6 cents per pound and in 50pound lots at 6 ½ cents per pound In each case the material will be delivered free onboard on-board of cars or to express Mr Howard gives the following SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS RECOMMENDA-TIONS which embody the best advice that can be given fruit growers and which it behooves our orchardists and nurserymen nursery-men in the east to heed 1 In all cases of recent or sligh attack the affected stock should be promptly unrooted and buruKk No measure is so sure a rnla and the danger of spreajl is so great that this course seems fullv warranted 2 In tiiasss of long standing apd wide extent the affected tock should be cu back severely and treated with I winter soap wash stock badly incrusted I incrust-ed with scale should be cut out at once and burned Thelessening of the vitality I vi-tality together with the poisoning of the sa wood already affected by the scale in such cases will usually prevent I pre-vent the Dlant from ever again becoming be-coming healthy and generally it is beyond be-yond heln We wish particularly I to impress upon the minds of in the fall and irrigate that land and I soak it thoroughly not trusting to the fall rains to flood that soil and saturate satur-ate it Irrigating it in that way we find that when we have done this we never had to irrigate in the spring to bring our cross to the surface All of you are aware of the fact that frequently fre-quently the land is so dry in the spring that in order to make the crop sprout well in the ground it is necessary to irrigate but where this system is followed owed it Is perfectly certain that the I land Is sufficiently moist to bring up the crop I have experimented with wheat and have never irrigated the soil when I have subsoiled In the morning when I sro out 1 see what ao pears to be devdrops moisture that has come from beneath and the land is sufficientl irrigated to bring the crop on until it shades the ground and then it rarely requires irrigation Now it mav be unimportant to you i I I and to many others who have not a soil I that is suitable to such purposes or that can be treated in this manner but I i to us it Is an important point and we find that we raise great crops A gentleman gen-tleman who lives beside me and had a farm close to mine raised 75 bushels of wheat to the acre plump measure by adopting this system and I was only a trifle behind with 65 bushels of wheat to the acre as fine as I have ever seen in anv country All because I farm it and own and cultivate it instead in-stead of spending my time looking after that portion of the water that ditenot belong to mewater that somebody some-body else ought to have had on the higher and drier land that surrounds the valley There is another system on the lowlands low-lands in our valleys We see that springs are breaking through the surfs sur-fs ct and coming up and they are entirely en-tirely useless to us Springs of water where do thev come from Go into the mountains or rocks or wherever you are looking and you will find that there is only perhaps about twothirds of the snow that ever drains off from the surface and comes down into the valleys What becomes of the remainder remain-der It percolates through the soil and runs off that way and springs out to make our marshes and places that are I of no account whatever and hence that much water is absolutely wasted Go into the draws that you see in the mountains the dry canyons go into these draws and canyons and go down to bedrock and put ina dam and you will force those waters to the surface In this way we will bring into cultivation culti-vation the higher lands of Utah that I are now useless The irrigation i system is in its infancy but J will say this that we are better prepared very much better prepared to do practical work than we are to discuss it before a congresseven the National Irrigation congress These very territories and states in the center of the continent will be the very back hone and sinew of our great country in the developing and bringing out and sustaining of the honest poor We have immigrated over 100000 since 1840 and placed them in good homes and made them sole owners of those homes and these valleys and this people and this congress will be great factors in furnishing fur-nishing homes for the oppressed millions mil-lions of our own land as well as those of other lands v |