Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1906-08-17
WAR TO THE DEATH
ON GOBLIN MOTH
Hood River Orchardist Believes
He Can Get This Pest Off of
Fruit Trees.

Inc codlln moth is one of the worst
enemies the fruit growers of Rogue
River Valley have to contend against.
Spraying will kill this pest, but it
has to be done at just the right time
and day or two too early or too late
makes the work useless effort. How
to keep the moth worms out of apples
will be one of the principal subjects
considered at the series of six fruit
grwers meetings that will be held in
this county the first week in Septem-
Der.
One of the speakers at these meet
iugs will be E. H. Shepard, manager
of the Hood River Fruit Growers
Union, and big fruit raiser in that
famous valley. Mr.. Shepard has been
making careful study of the habits
of the Goblin moth and he will be able
to give the Josephine county grower
some practical pointers that will aid
them in fighting this persistent pest.
The Oregonian- of Monday has the fol-
lowing interview with Mr.. Shepard
that is worth being read by every or
ehardist in Oregon:
by an experiment which had its
denuemeHt Wednesday, E. H. Shepard,
manager Of the Fruit Growers Union,
has obtained information in regard to
the propagation Of the Goblin moth
that may be the means of saving apple
growers here many hundreds of dol
lar. AS is well known to entomolo-
gists, the exact period between bIoods
of Goblin moth is fixed one. The CON-
ing of the first brood, however, is said
by apple growers, who have carefully
watched them, to vary with the tenn
perature Of the weather during the
early Spring. If the coming of the
first brood can be discovered, they say
that il can then be determined exactly
when to spray for the second and most
disastrous brood.
This process Mr.. Shepard has deter.
mined, ana this year fruit growers
here will know exactly when to spray
in order to eliminate the wormy apple
In talking about this interesting ex-
pertinent the fruit growers manager
said:
&c 'Of course We hav always sprayed
our trees thoroughly and carefully both
during the Winter and Summer, but
the system has been more or less hap
hazard. While it has produced good
results, there has been some wormy
fruit which it has been impossible to
eradicate, owing to the fact that the
moth propagated between the periods
of spraying. By taking few of the
first wormy apples that appeared in
my orchard and placing them in jar,
/ have Matched out Goblin moth, the
first one that have seen in the valley,
although we have had undisputable
evidence that they were here. The
life of this moth will be four days,
when it will lay eggs that will take II
days to hatch. So you see we can de-
termine when to spray in order to de-
stroy the second brood.
' The late Spring this year was
r very unfavorable to the first brood of
codin moth. But the weather during
the past month has been the most fav-
orable for that fruit pest that has been
known in many years. as for 26 days
during the month the minimum tenn
perature at night did not fall below so
degrees. AS the moth flies at night
3 and is not active i'll a temperature OF
less than 81 degrees, it can be seen
that spraying at the proper time this
: year will be most important. 1t may
mean the saving Of manv hundreds Of
n dollars to growers, and there is no rea-
son Why this experiment., which as far