The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-12-28
GOVERNMENT WARS
ON DISEASE PESTS

Ihe following interesting data rela-
tive TO the war made by the govern
ment on disease pests and the great
birth rate of the San Jose Scale. writ
ten by DR.. +. G. Carpenter. recently
appeared in the Fruit Trade Journal:
| Come with me to the Agricultural
Department and see how Uncle Sam is
waging war on the flies, bugs and bac-
terra which are injuring the farmer.
lie IS finding them by the millions and
he has scores of scientists who are
rearing them, studying their habits
ana practcing how to destroy them.
went recently through a number of
laboratories where these little beings
are cultivated. Some are so small
that !, 1000, 600, 600 or so can be crowded
INTO thimble, and they breed so rap.
l1iy that single family will produce
more than 1000, 600. 900 children and
grandchildren in a season, many gen
eratlons being crowded into that time.
Take for instance the San Jose scale.
which has cost our fruit growers some
thing about 5000, 000, 600 and which
they are now spending millions to
hight. looked at it through the mi
eroseope in the pomological bureau.
The one | examined was among those
on a peach limb which covered il as
closely almost as the pores of your
SKIN. Each scale is a wax-like body
not as big as the head of pin, and
the insect itself lies under this, using
1T as a shield while it sucks the life |
blood of the tree.
The little being is male and female |
and the sexes are married and have |
children not unlike human beings. |
The single female, however, will have |
406 young in season, aud the young |
reach maturity SO quickly that one |
little wife may produce 400 babies a |
year, while the offspring of one parent |
during single season has been estl-
mated at more than sixteen hundred |
million females. When it is remem-
bered that there are colonies of this
insect scattered throughout every or
chard region of the United States from
northern Michigan to the Everglades
of Florida and from Los Angeles to
Delaware you may appreciate that
job it is to contol them.
Talk about the Yellow PERIL This
little animal came from across the
Pacific. 1t was brought in on some
peach stock imported from China and
was running the orchards of Southern
California when one of the farmers OF
that region gave his trees wash of
sheep dip. The dip was composed Of
lime, salt and sulphur solution, which
had come from Australia. He was
surprised to find that this liquid wiped
out the scale. The fact was reported
to the Agricultural Department, and
then, as a result of il experiments
began the wholesale spraying which
now goes on all over the country.
tN cry winter or spring the commercial
of the United States are
sprayed with this mixture. The CON
,entrated spray is too strong to use
after the leaves have come out, but it
ioes not injure the trees while vegeta-
ion is dormant, and if applied to every
ut of the bark above ground it wipes
'ut the scale.
Moreover, the San Jose scale has no
wings to fly from tree to tree, although
he young can climb about from their
little homes over the branches, and can
Ie carried on the feet of birds to the
'ther trees of the orchard or to other ;
which may be many miles
If. 1t may also be blown by the wind {
short distance.