The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-04-15
HORTICULTURE
r. WALDEN

fornia has a new insect pest that is
proving serious. They call 1t the
''thrip" 1t is present in the Santa
Clara valley about San Jose and no.
where else yet. l have not beenable
to find description of this insect
but from what have seen in the fruit
papers of that state [ learn that II
attacks the fruit buds of the prune,
peach, apricot and cherry. [ Judge
it does this before the bloom appears.
In some cases the damage seems to be
slight but in others it results in the
entire destruction of the crop. One
man in reporting to the California
Fruit Grower says: Last year in
45-acre patch of prunes [ gathered
only 60 boxes of fruit, the damage be-
ing due to thripS. In the past few
days I have seen whole prune orch
ards that will not bloom" The pest
is a new one and so far as I can learn
no one has yet found out how to sue
cessfully combat it. But we may con-
fidently expect that such men as
Woodwork and Clarke, who have
done so much in meeting the ravages
of other insects, will find some way
to overcome this pest. Whether the
thrips are likely to spread over Cali
fornia into other states | do not know
But we can't forget that right in this
valley first appeared in America the
San Jose scale and it has spread to
all parts of the United States. Hurry,
brethren. Woodwork and Clarke, and
find out how to control this pest be-
fore it reaches us. If you can't do
that then do try and keep it at home!
IF California has been prolific In
Injurious insects, she has not peeh
slow in learning how to fight them
successfully. From her came the san
Jose scale and from her came the
most successful of all remedies-the
sulphur. salt and lime wash. WASH
ington. through the untiring efforts
of Prof. Piper, has taught the world
that the salt is not necessary, Dut
we willingly give to our sister state
the mead of praise for this pest OF
all remedies. California is taking the
lead in another fight in which we are
much interested. They have Imported
a little black insect from Europe that
destroys the larvae of the codllng
moth. California horticulturists and
entomologists take the lead in flndlng
destructive parasites to prey on In
sects injurious to our fruits and veg
etables. This particular one is not
the first attempt in this direction. 1t
seems that a Mr.. Compere was sent
to southern Europe to find this para
site, for it had become known that
while the cooling moth abounds there
it's damages are not very great owing
to the fact that this little black in
sect, or more particularly the female
member of the family, hunts around
and finds the larvae of the cooling
moth and deposits an egg in the back
of each worm and this, Matching out,
kills it's host. This is to our liking,
for we send our hired men over our
orchards every ten or twelve days
during the summer to kill these lar
vac, commonly but improperly called
worms" Now, if we can get an
other insect to do this work and board
itself, we are ready to hail it as
an important helper. They are hatch
ing them out in California by the
thousands and soon they will be
thoroughly tried in the orchards. Thus
far but little has been done outside
of the breeding cages. Our Califor-
loro+I,ron confident that the