The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1905-08-30
WEDNESDAY. AUG. 80, 1905.
PROGRESS OF the COLLINS
MOTH INVESTIGATION
Review Of the Work to Date Done In
Leading Orchards of the Valley,
by Prof. JENNIE.

Prof. Eldred Jenne Of the agricul-
tural college at Pullman, who has
spent the summer in the midst of the
vskima valley orchards Investigating
the coddling moth in behalf Of the
college, with O. view to finding the
best means of combating this
most troublesome pest, very kindly
furnishes The Herald with the fol-
lowing review of the work to date:
The investigations on the codling
moth undertaken in the vicinity OF
North Yakima by the state expert
ment station are nearing completion,
and while the full results of the work
cannot be obtained until the apple
crop is picked, 1t may not be without
interest at this time to state the
scope of the work, together with
some OF the results SO far obtained.
Two years ago an exhaustive study
was made of the life history of the
codling moth in this locality, with
the end in view of basing a scientific
system of spraying upon the knowl-
edge thus gained. This work is be-
ing carried out during the present
summer. Three commercial or
orchards were selected for spraying,
according to the system suggested
by the work of two years ago. These
were the Mckee company's orchard,
J. w. Peck's orchard in the upper
Mckee valley, and w. l.. Wright's
at Fruitvale.
Unfortunately the apple crop in
the Mckee companys orchard was SO
much damaged by frost that the
spraying there was discontinued
after the Bartlett pears were picked.
The results up to then were very
satisfactory the Bartlett pears be-
ing only 81 per cent wormy, and
what apples remained uninjured by
the frost ran from less than 1 per
cent TO 10 per cent wormy accord
ing to the variety, the average being
about 4 per cent. These results are
the more remarkable, considering
that the fruit in this orchard in form
err years has been almost total loss
on account of neglect in spraying.
In Mr.. ]. W. Peck's orchard there
have Just been picked over 400 boxes
of Gravestefn and Jeffries apples,
of which between two and three per
cent were wormy. The remainder
of the apples in this orchard (Ben
Davis and Laurers) appear but lit
tie more infected. During previous
years the loss in this orchard has
been between fifty and sixty per cent,
although last year seven sprayings
were given.
The orchard of w. L. Wright is
one in which the coddlfng moth has
in former years been combatted with
success, the percentage OF wOrmy
apples never exceeding fifteen and
usually being less than ten per cent.
This year the summer apples have
averaged less than 5 per cent wormy,
and Bartlett pears still less. From
present appearances the crop as a
whole will run less than per cent
OF wormy apples.
In Mr.. Wright's orchard hand
spraying outfit was used, while the
other two were sprayed with q gaso-
lene power machine. A comparison
of the two as regards cost, efficiency,
ETC.. will be an interesting feature.
In this work the Bartlett pears and
summer apples have been sprayed
twice. Winter apples will be
sprayed four or nve times, the exact
time Of each spraying being deter
mined by the stage of development Of
the insect. when is being closely fol-
lowed.
Besides these commercial spray
ing demonstrations, there have been
undertaken some thirty-five spraying
experiments in a block of trees in
Mr.. Wright's orchard. These in
c1ude tests Of some twenty-five diff
ferent fomulae, such as Paris green
Of different strengths in both liquid
and dust sprays, lead arsenites, lime
arsenites. London purple, Schlee's