Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-10-10
FRUIT INSECT PESTS.
Impeachment Of the Soil Prominent
Cause

Cause.
The important fact is fast becoming recog'
nized and better understood that the cause OF
attack by many insect pests upon vines and
trees is the impoverished condition of the
tree or vine in its vital quality. resulting
either from the lack Of plant food, in the
natural composition of the soil, or from its
exhaustion by the long drain upon it, or from
it's unusually rapid consumption by demands
to mature continuous and excessive fruitage.
this is the entire explanation for the appear
ance and ravages of the phylloxera. This
pest was not known in France or upon the
Mediterranean until the old vineyards had
become weak in vitality from long years OF
successive bearing and heavy production,
without an equivalent supply OF plant force
This, some readers may think, could not be
charged against France with the unequaled
reputation enjoyed by the tillets of soil In
that country, for thorough cultivation and con-
tinuous enriching of the ground under use /;
but it must be remembered that even to the
present day one of the most perplexing
problems encountered by vineyardists is to
ascertain What fertilizer or material caa be
added to the soil to supply tie peculiar nu-
tritiVe property demanded by the vine. This
question was made prominent and long con-
tinued study by chemists and the leading
vine.growers in the wine.msking section Of
Ohio, along the southern shore of Lake Erie,
for years, and the want of success in the IT,
vestig atom rendered many vineyards so unre-
munerstive that they were abandoned.
Parties owning thFss vineyards stated at
the time that no fertilizer which they had
applied or found seem to afford the neces-
ssry plant food to bring back the former
vigor of the vines. At this stage, various at
tacks appeared each year in one form or an
other upon the vines or fruit, which it was
plain to see or, at least, now il, in the light
of later experience and observation, were the
direct result of an impoverished condition of
the vines.
G.. G. Briggs, the prominent California
vineyardist and fruit'grower, stated while In
conversation upon this subjec-, q few days
since, that the necessary germ for phylloxera
exists in the roots Of nearly, if not quite all,
grapevines, and only requires the necessary
conditions to csuse it to develop. The con.
dition inducing such development is low
state of vital force caused by excessive pro-
ducEion, want of plant food in soil, lack of
necessary moisture, etc.
This result from Impeachment is by no
means confined to vines, but the same in
furious attacks are frequently made from the
same cause by other pests upon fruit trees.
OF course the presence and ravsges Of all our
fruit pests are not to be accounted for upon
this theory, but sufficient proportion of
them can be traced to this cause, to pointedly
suggest intelligent action for overcoming
much OF the present evil.
1t is now found that the old orange groves
In Florida are becoming valueless and insect
ridden from this same source. The Florida
AgrIcultUrtSt, under recent date, says upon
this subject:
Our attention has been called to several
old groves on hammock land that are now in
critical condition, dying, it is said, from
the rsvages of the scale insects. In our
opinion the insects are only the after cause;
that the trees have been impoverished by the
removal of tons upon tons of fruit year after
year, without any attempt being made to
renovste the soil by fertilizirg. No land can
stand such treatment, however rich it may
appear the treeshsve been placed in con.
dition to render them fit subjects for the
scale insect; this is particularly the case on
shell mounds, where the small amount of soil
mixed with the shell has been used up. When
wild groves existed in the hammocks the
fruit dropped from the trees and enriched the
soil, and the droppings from forest trees
ouuCu w LbS Tue bFttH BlbO re-
NAMED quiescent in the shade and made little
growth, giving back more than they drew
from the soil, but when the forest trees were
removed, the orange trees singled out, budded |
and exposed to the sun, then growth was |
stimulated aud they made strong pull on |
the rich soil. When they came into bearing |
and the crops of fruit were removed yesr |
after year, returning nothing TO the soil or |
what was taken away. the land must become |
and it stands TO reason that |
tins trees must eventually give out unless
fertiliz7d. These who have hammock groves |
now giving them thousands of dollars per an.
Ium, should take warning in time, or they !
will ind when too late thai they have ridden |
4 willing horse to death. In Australia a |
dressing of the finest Peruvian guano is used, |
two pounds TO the tree, after each crop"
IL bshooves vine.growers and orchard
SITS to look seriously and promptly
% this matter, for there is probably |
40 place in the world where SO little is done I
20 keep up the quality and strength of the
oil by the use OF fertilizers as in California. !
And while the great natural richness and
of our lands render such par
imonious and reckless treatment possible for
! time, we are already beginning to see and
eel the inevitable result, for as surely az we
annot continue to subtract from a given |
quantity without reducing it, SO we cannot
ontinue to draw the plant. producing ele-
nert from the unreplenished soil without its
stal impoverishment, and reaching final
nd