The Daily Missoulian., 1909-09-20
COLV|Li DISCUSSES
ORCHARD PESTS
MisscuLA HoRTIcULTuRIST DIS.
cussEs INTERESTINGLY
HIS IDEAS.

4 Writing from Mfssoula. II. c. b.
Il Colvill tells his ideas on how to take
4 care of orchard pests and tree dis
| eases in a letter addressed to Editor
/ Sutherlin of the Rocky Mountain
Husbandman. Mr.. Colyill writes as
! follows:
/ The main idea Is that, contrary To
all previous ideas on that subject.
] our magnificent climate, high altitude
and other advantages will no longer
enable US to raise apples. pears and
other fruits without lots of hard work.
The old-tmers had the best of us
there and have had the cream Of the
market at very little expense in the
raising. They deserved 1t for their
enterprise. and are now find in
many cases selling out at prices that
will keep them still without our
strenuous struggles in comfort for the
rest OF their days.
/ Not minute too soon either for
many of them. for with the sudden
increase of blight all over the state
n lot of hard. monotonous and con-
tinuous work Is (and Is to be) the
portion of those who bought their
holdings. Attacking as 1t does our
most profitable varieties IL may yet
change our market, driving us to re-
/ sistant verities. Tho oyster shell
scale was rather disdainruily treated
last winter at Hamilton. but after "A
summer of experimental work 1t Is
still with us and to stay. You re-
member one practical speaker telling
US that L. gallons of lime and sui
phur solution to the tree was an easy
and sure cure for it, put on i'm the
dormant season. He was nearer the
mark than / thought at the time. This
seasons work developes that II takes
at least half Of that on an ordinary
tree to have much effect on the scale,
and that ordinary applications have
little or no effect. This is where the
practical difficulties come in. 1t Is
difficult. almost impossible to get even
six gallons of spray to stick where
you want II, while the expense of
treating many trees In that way is so
large that a great many OF our or
chard men, even those well off find
themselves unable to afford the treat
ment. Our main efforts are. therefore.
toward cheaper way of handling
this pest.
Cooley Busy.
Professor Cooley has been doing an
enormous lot of work on the oyster
shell this summer: but II will prob
ably take him another year of prac-
tical work before he finds himself able
to publish anything definite On the
subject. although am hoping he viii
give us some results and practical
hints before next spring.
One point seemed proved from the
large lot of spraying done by the
board of horticulture at Lolo and that
was that to get any results thick
coating had to remain on the trees
until the scale hatched in June. If
there Was enough left on. the work
was done on the young scale when
they hatched. In one count Is dead
scale were counted before he ran
across living one. on another
branch not SO well coated Is live ones
were counted before the 45 dead ones
We're reached. both sprayed at n
strength of one gallon of Rex lime
and sulphur solution to 10 gallons of
water Although some trees there
were sprayed with different strengths
from straight Rex lime without wa
ter to one gallon to 10. the strength
seemed to make no difference to re-
suits. and there was nothing doing
till June. 1t all worked out To the
advantage on those branches that re-
tained heavy coating especially on
the under side where most scale seem
TO stick.
This brings up another point. that Is
that unless a curved a. per cent bend
Is used at the end of the rod Ii is inn
possible to kill enough of the scale to
prevent the natural increase putting
one right back to starting point. With
i5 thy twisting ones wrist both
sides and top and bottom can be COW
cred. This alone would account for
failures to control scale with lime and
sulphur solutions. Also probably the
season has a great deal To do with the
result, and as to whether IA wet or "A
dry season is best have l been unable
To get an authoritative answer OF all
the other solutions tried, lime and sui
phur. with one or two exceptions, still
in the experimental stage, seems to ne
tho best on the list so FAR. But on az
count of the expense. hardship and
difficulty of using this preparation il
is very likely that something better
will be found and that shortly.
From other work done ON my own
orchard working on the theory ad-
vanced above and seemingly proved at
Lnlo. a more economical way of
handling the oyster shell was worked
out Considerable burning of leaves,
however, resulted and one pear tree
was killed half way back.
Rex Solution.
Instead of using the Bordeau mix
ture for apple scale l used the Rex
solution, omiting the spring spray in
the dormant season. / applied the
spray when the blooms turned red.
( The second when they dropped. and
have used one or two later on the
worst trees. On these later sprays
strength of one gallon Rex to 10 OF