The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-08-01

THE
ers in the soil and is liable to attack
new settings. 1t is an enlargement
caused by a wound and in the absence
of a wound there will be no crown-gall.
y
Before dismissing the matter of the
woody aphis it might be well to call
attention to the two stages of this in
sect, the root stage and the tree sage.
Some people, including some men
classed as scientists, claim that there
are two types of the insect. But this
is not accepted by careful observers.
The insect winters on the roots and
here is where it does it's injury. In
the spring it migrates to the trunk and
| limbs of the tree and shows its pres
ence by the white cottony coating it
wears. A very careful examination of
the two stages of the insect convinces
me that in each stage the insect is
identical There is not much appear
ance of the cotton when it appears
on the roots. For some reason, which
we do not fully understand, the cot
tony coat develops chiefly in the air
and sunlight This much I know to
certainty that where we have the root
stage we will have the tree stage and
visa versa.
II
l notice that some of our exchanges
report that the cold weather during
the past spring has killed the San Jose
scale. To my mind this is very doubt
full. That the young scale before 1t is
| settled and becomes covered with its
coat which gives it it's popular name,
might be killed by heavy frosts is
probable, but that old insects protected
by their scaly covering are killed by
ordinary spring frosts is quite improb-
able. The we'll protected scale is no
spring chicken. 1t is settled beyond
any dispute that the scale has sur
vived a temperature of twenty and
thirty degrees below zero. That some
may have been killed by such tenn
peratures may be true, but that such
cold will kill all of the insects we
know to be untrue. In fact we do not
| to a certainty know that the cold
weather kills them. But some one
may reply to this that dead scales
have been found after cold winters.
That is true, but dead scales can be
found after any kind of a winter. 1t
is quite a mistake to suppose that the
scales live on indefinitely if not killed
by cold weather or in some other way.
The San Jose scale is not liveforever
It is extremely doubtful If any scale
ever lives through two successive sum-
mers. They are born (not hatched)
one summer, live through the winter,
produce more young the following
summer and then die of old age or
weak back. Some die, doubtless,
through the winter in the same way,
not because of the cold, but because
their time has come"
Y
One spring not very long since it
was heralded by novice that the
scale was all dead-frozen to death.
Others looked and found dead scale
and so it was proclaimed that we were
rid of the scale for a time at least.
One county fruit inspector, who seem
ed not to believe that the winter had
killed the scale, warned the people
that it would be we'll for them to
spray the infected orchards. The Sc
uuel proved that the scale was as bad
that year as it had ever been. So it
is quite likely that those who are pro-
claiming that the April and May frosts
have killed the scale have simply
found the usually dead scale and have
overlooked the live ones.
&
Another error about the scale is
that if it is rubbed loose where 1t is
anchored by it's probosis, it will crawl
about and fasten itself again and go
on with it's life work. This is an error.
L. ------. 1o1:ozxo,u tho Lot him loosen