Cañon City record., 1900-05-10
HOW TO GROW FRUIT.
Fruit Pests and Their Remedies BY
Horticultural Inspector White.

~ WOuiu tdho UuI lAttlo ALkumouU
to convince the intelligent farmer
that in order that he may produce a
good crop he must thoroughly pre-
pare his ground, SOW or plant his
seed, irrigate, cultivate and destroy
any weeds that may be . detriment
to his crop. In fact he must be a
rustler to make q success Of the
farm. He must use the best and
many Of the latest methods Of men
of practical experience. Not so with
many fruit growers. They seem to
think that all THAI il required in fruit
raising is to plant, irrigate and harv-
est a crop. Their orchards 20 un-
pruned. Trees go uncultivated.
Weeds and rubbish are allowed to
collect in the fruit patch as harbor
for insects. Then put up the howl
that there is no money to be made
out of fruit. l am glad to say, how
ever, that this state of things does
not exist to any great extent about
Canon City. Fruit growers here are
realizing that if we make any money
raising fruit we must care for our
trees and vines by proper irrigation,
cultivation, pruning, destroying fruit
pests, etc.
l have noticed that one of our tree
pests has a.feady made its appear
ance in lew places this spring. 1t
is the brown or clover mite, very
small insect, The adult is brown
color and the young mites are deep
scarlet. They suck sap from the
leaves of the trees and cause them to
turn pale yellow color. Pear and
apple trees are mostly affected by
them. They are capable under fav-
orable conditions to do great injury
to an orchard. Kerosene immulsion
will kill them. Apply in the form of
a spray. Another insect that is dam
ageing very many Of the beautiful
trees within the limits of Canon City
is the red spider. | believe that fully
one half the little fruit patches in
Canon City are affected by the red
spider, also many of the elms on our
streets and in our yards, and yet
many Of US think spraying is use
less pastime. The habits Of the red
spider are about the same a. those
of the brown mite. Use the same
remedy to destroy them as recon-
mended for mites. Then we may
mention the codling moth, which may
be found in almost every orchard in
the county, and we will soon see its
work on every single apple in the
county unless we fight its advance At
every step. Now is an opportune
time to begin the fight by cleaning
up and destroying all the old rubbish
in the orchard. Gather up all the
old sacking cloth, boards and what
ever may serve as hiding for the
apple worm.
The moths will soon hatch and will
90 forth to destroy your crop, unless
you first destroy them. Scraping the
old bark from the trees, and then
washing them with Red Seal lye, one
can to ten gallons of water will de-
stroy many of them. If allowed to
change to a moth, these moths will
deposit their eggs, generally in the
calyx Of the blossom, in short time
after the calyx closes the egg matches
and the apple worm begins to
eat its way to the surface, thus
practically destroying the apple.
The theory of spraying just after the
bloom falls, is this, a small particle
of the poison is deposited in the calyx
of the apple and closes up in there,
as seasoning for the food the worms
eat, and of course proves fatal to the
young worm. Spray the first time
just after the blossoms fall, again
about every ten days for six weeks
with four ounces of Paris green to
every forty gallons of water, adding
few handfuls of lime to each barrel.
About the first Of July cut bands Of
gunny sacks about eight inches wide
tie them around the trees just below
the branches using one single knot,
you may look for worms about every
week and find plenty of them destroy
the worms and put the sacking back,
use any surplus boards you may have
by placing few about the orchard,
laying one down on the ground, cover
ing the top side with cloth, and then