The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-03-01
Edited by F. Walden

size, color and quality shown at the
Lewis and Clarke Fair in Portland,
were raised in Whatcom county. j.
Wayland Clarke had charge OF the
Whatcom county exhibit and frequent
ly called me over to his department
to see his fruit. | stated in The Ranch
that summer that WhatcOm county
could raise as fine early peaches as
could be raised anywhere. When it
comes to raising the big, late yellow
peaches like Late Crawford, alberta,
Salway, Cox's Cling and the Orange
Cling, l believe that section will
largely fail. Foster and Early Craw-
ford may be successfully raised there.
do not believe that all parts of Puget
Sound can do as well as Whatcom
county in raising peaches. Some very
good peaches have been sent to this
office from Snohomish county and
from Vashon island. If I had farm
or garden spot on Puget Sound would
grow some peaches, or at least would
try to and believe l could succeed to
some extent.
| know nothing more that can be
done in killing the spores of the pow
derry mildew than to use the remedies
ent fungi winter over somehow Spray
ing in the fall is the best way to kill
some of the spores, those of the black
spot canlxer for instance. Some spores
can be best killed by spraying in the
winter as in the case OF apple scap.
Some must be killed in the summer.
But the sovereign remedy for all fungl
is the Bordeaux mixture. The lime
sulphur is both an insecticide and
fungicide. Try spraying with these
remedies at different times OF the year
and notes the results. I have never
had any experience with the poWdery
mildew.
J. s. Kinnaman, Elma, Wash, writes
under date of February 8, as follows:
"Please find enclosed an apple tree
twig with some insects on it. Will you
please tell me what they are and the
remedy?" The limb sent was almost
covered with the eggs of the green
aphis. technically called the aphis mali.
There are a great many kinds OF
aphides but they have many things
in common. Nearly all winter over In
the egg stage. None of them is an
eater, that is, does not chew its food
but all are suckers. The best time to
fight them is in the egg state. 1t is
claimed that the lime-sulphur wash
will render the eggs nOnfertlle and
they will not hatch out in the spring.
Some few eggs will in nearly all cases
escape and thus few breeders will be
on hand in the spring. All the early
ones are females, but they are partho-
genetic, that is, they can produce their
young without the males. They pro-
duce their young alive and do not lay
any eggs till late in the season. They
are so prolific that it is claimed by
some entomologists that million may
come from one female and her de-
scendants in one season. or course
such wonderful increase does not OFTEN
occur for there are numerous enemies
that prey on the aphis family. In the
warm valleys east of the Cascade
Range the hot sun of the midsummer
months destroys very many of the diff
ferent families of the aphis. Hence,
the green aphis and the hop aphis do
not do much harm in these warm val
leys. But in the higher attitudes and
on Puget Sound the sun does not in
lure the aphis and they are serious
pests. Spraying with poison does no
good for all the aphids suck their nour-
ishment from the juices under the
outer bark. The only way to kill them
by spraying is to use some sticky SUB
stance and close up their breathing
pores Good soap suds will do this, but
perhaps the best thing to use is kero-
sene emulsion. The difficulty encoun-
tered in spraying for the destruction OF
the green aphis is that they work on
the under sides of the leaves, causing
tbo,,o 70 curI I'm and fins III ic difficult