The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-02-01
with the
Past Years Experience w
Cooling Moth

la Walla, IN the lower YAKIMA valley,
in the lower Wenatchee valley and in
all similar places, the codling moth is
the one great plague standing in the
way of successful apple growing.
That the damage by the codling
moth is not the same in different Sec
, tons of the country is something not
understood by many people and often
leads to wrong conclusions. For in
stance, we read in the papers that
some man sprayed his apple trees and
secured 95 per cent. of apples clear
Of injury from the cooling moth. If
we fail to recognize the difference
here pointed out we may conclude that
we can get the same results in any
locality if we do the same kind of
spraying. If the results above men
toned are secured in a section like
Puget Sound it would be no success
at all for, according to the letter above
quoted, this is the maximum damage
where no spraying is resorted to. If
man loses 10 per cent. of his fruit
in the worst infected sections he has
made greater success than the man
who sprays in some sections and loses
from 2 to per cent. of his apples.
Then the fact is often overlooked
that some varieties of apples suffer
worse than others. If one grows the
King or the Pewaukee in the worst
infected sections he may consider his
fight against the codling moth fairly
of clean apples. The Pullman college
men who did such good work in ex-
perimenting with the codling moth in
y oh IN,
per cent of clean apples in one orch
ard and yet in that same orchard they
report IS per cent. Of the Kings
wormy. Sometimes a man is favor
ably located in some section away
from other orchards and where this
pestiferous insect has not yet become
domiciled His success may be phe-
nomenal and he makes glowing re-
port of his success. But this cannot
be duplicated where the enemy is on
all sides Of an orchard In very rare
cases, it is to be hoped, there is a
man who has such a penchant for
blowing about what he can do that he
tells how we'll he has succeeded where
others have made but Indifferent sue
cess. Such men seem to be oblivious
to the existence Of the ninth command
ment.
Enough has been presented to pave
the way for giving our experience the
past season. Our orchards are in one
of the badly infested sections and yet
our success, while not phenomenal,
has been sufficiently good to enable us
to do fairly we'll financially in raising
apples. Our fruit ranch of 100 acres
is not for sale at any price. We pur-
pose to keep at the business and feel
confident that we can keep out of the
poor house-exeept the one we live in.
We began our spraying for the cod
ling moth the past spring on the 3Oth
day of April. Why did we begin on
that date? For the very simple rea-
son that the condition of the bloom
was just right. Most of the petals
had fallen but not quite all of them.
1t is we'll known that the calix cup OF
the apple is open at the time of bloom
ing, but that it closes within six to ten
days after. The poison can be sue
cessfully deposited in the blossom end
Of the apple while this calix cup is
open but after it closes it cannot be
successfully done. According to Card
and others who have given the matter
much attention, fully 80 per cent. of
the first brood of worms enter the ap-
Piles at the blossom end. 1t Is not cor
rect, as many poorly informed per-
sons suppose, that the eggs are laid
in the blossom end of the young ap-
pies. Not till after the calix cup clos
es and, therefore, after the first spray
ing is done, do any OF the moths ap-
pear. Some persons are puzzled to
| Iof4
any moths flying and consequently be-
fore any eggs are laid. The object Is
to fill the calix cup before it closes and
> La1 ha IN Y0odinncc for