The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-09-01

and they so damage the structure OF
the leaves that they can not do the
work in the preparation of food for
the tree, that they are expected to do.
| have frequently referred to the dam
age to our fruit trees by these insects
and | shall have to keep this up at
intervals as long as l fill my present
place on the staff of The Ranch.
Howard Thompson, Alfalfa, Wash,
who wrote some time since relative
to spraying his peach trees with the
lme-sulphur wash, writes me again
informing me that I misunderstood
him. He says: 81 did not mean that
spraying injured the trees, but that
the aphis remained after the spray
ing, which seemed to prove that the
apris eggs were uninjured by the
spraying" | am glad to be able to
set myself right If in any case I am
misunderstood by one of our CORE
spondents. Why the lime-sulphur
wash did not kill the aphis eggs in
this case, l do not know. 1t would
be we'll for friend Thompson to try
this treatment further. I know that
with me the lime-sulphur, as we pre-
pare it, does effectually kill the eggs
of the aphids I wish to mention a
new proof of this: We have a small
plum orchard near one of our houses
on our ranch. There are two varie-
ties of plums-the Miner and the For
est Garden. The Miner trees have
been affected for years with an aphis
that Prof. Piper calls the Minus Per-
sica. We can not get at these trees
to spray them without considerable
difficulty, so it has been imperfectly
done in former years, but this year the
boys determined to give these trees a
thorough dose. This was done before
the leaves put out. I have just come
from the ranch, and while there I
examined these Miner plum trees and
| am pleased to report that there is
not the sign of an aphis on them and
they are loaded with plums. The only
solution of the matter that I can
give is that owing to the imperfect
manner in which the spraying was
done in former years many of the
eggs were not reached, but that this
spring all the eggs were covered with
the wash and were rendered nonfer-
tile. When | was a boy and went to
school we used McGuffey's readers in
one of which were the lines eff at first
you don't succeed, try, try, again"
Will our correspondent do as I did
and apply the valuable lesson in this
old couplet?
A letter is in hand from Geo. A.
Bradford, st. James, Mimi, in which
he says: 81 commenced taking The
Ranch with the idea of informing my
self upon the fruit business in your
state and Oregon | certainly have
got what | was after and some more
| consider your Horticultural Depart
ment worth four times the cost of the
paper to any one who is at all inter-
ested in horticultural matters. I hope
to be a resident of the Pacific North
west before my time expires on your
paper. Viewed from this distance, |
consider The Ranch is doing the coun-
try far more good than all the high
colored advertisements of the real es
tate dealers together. We feel that
we are getting somewhere near the
plain unvarnished truth from the pa
per and especially do we appreciate
Mr.. Walden's conservative style"
This reference to the real estate men
leads me to relate an incident that
happened in Seattle few months ago.
A real estate man from over the noun
tains in one of the prolific valleys in
Eastern Washington was in Seattle
and met a friend of mine, to whom he
tried to sell some land. In trying to
effect this sale, the real estate man
told some marvellous stories about the
productivity of the orchards in East
ern Washington This friend of mine
stated that he had recently had a con-
ference with me about such matters
and that there was considerable diff