The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1903-01-21
THE SUCCESSFUL WAY
TO FIGHT FRUIT TREE PESTS.
Interesting Suggestions by Practical
Fruit Grower Who Has Fought
Them to a Finish.

Irul' pests Sucn as the San jose scale,
codling moth and other miner pests,
with but very little success. One reason
is that the orchardsts have not clearly
understood the nature of the scale and
codling moth, and another reason is
that great number of fruit growers
have merely sprayed because the law
compelled them to do so. have noticed
in travelling around over the country,
and my travels have been quite extern
sive, that the fruit trees were not
sprayed more than two thirds of the
distance from the ground to the tops, in
any year except last year. Last year l
noticed that the spraying was done a
little more thorough, but not thorough
enough by any means. The spraying
has been done mainly on the lower
parts of the branches of the trees,
where the average man thought that he
could see the scale almost by the hand
full to be sure he could see the shells or
coverings of the scale, but did not once
think that where he supposed he could
see the scale in such great numbers,
that it was only where the scale had
been and that they had Matched out and
gone further up the tree to get fresh
pasture, but never the less such is the
case. don't say however that the
lower limbs of the fruit trees are entirely
clear of the scale. So it is deci lediv the
best to spray the tree very thoroughly
from top to bottom and particularly
spray thoroughly in the tops of the tree,
and on the ends OF every twg instead of
doing as we have heretofore done, only
spray the trunk of the tree and a little
WAYS up the branch of the tree.
| will say here that there is no reason
why we cannot have here in the Yakima
valley the greatest fruit country on
earth, because we have the climate and
the soil that is peculiarly adapted to the
raising of the finest apples that can be
produced anywhere on the face of the
globe. Besides the climate and the soil
we have an abundance of water with
which to irrigate our orchards and that
Is not all we are at the very door of the
greatest market in the world. Now in
as much as the problem Of com batting
with the fruit pests is solved, and it is
no longer matter of experiment. the
next tHing to learn is how to pick, pack
and market our fruit and when we have
learned this, the fruit growers will be
the happiest people on earth.
One of the most essential things to do
in our early spring is to properly mix
our spraying material; and the most
essential thing to do is to properly and
thoroughly spray. Don't neglect to
spray the tips of the limbs and thorough
ly spray high up on the limbs, for there
is where you will find the most of the
scale. And again | would recommend
that you be not in too blg a hurry to
spray in the spring wait until the fruit
buds begin to swell pretty well, for
when the buds begin to swell the scale
come out of their dormant state and
begin to feed on the moisture or sap, and
at this time the shell or scale that
covers the insect begins to raise slightly
and detach itself from the tree, and it is
easier for the spraying solution to reach
and kill the insect
Now if we will be particular and follow
the suggestions outlined above, we can
completely eXterminate the scale; but let
us not stop at this for fear we might miss
few of these pestiferous insects; let us
watch our young apples on the trees
very carefully and if we discover the
scale commencing to work on the little
apples, which any of us know what it is
when we see it, as its first appearance is
a little red speck on the apple, then let
us begin spraying with the following
formula: Paris green one pound, salt
eight pounds, rock lime twelve pounds,
to 30 gallons of water. Mix your paris
green in hot water and dissolve the salt
in water to have it ready when needed,
then slake the lime and put the slaked
lime in water before putting it into the
barrel, fill up your barrel pretty well
with water then add your lime, salt and
paris green. While spraying keep the
solution well agitated so as to keep lime
and paris green well mixed or else you
will not do good work prefer to use
common weed hoe or something like a
churn dash to keep the solution well
agitated, as consider that the agitators
that are on any OF the pumps that