The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1913-02-27
HISTORY OF
LEAF-ROLLER
IN THE CANON
CITY SECTION
by A. S. Taylor, Horticultural lnspee
tor for Fremont County.


The green fruit worm known as the
leaf-roller, because of its peculiar hao-
IL of rolling up the leaves OF the tree
upon which it is feeding. was first no
ticed at Canon City in the spring OF
1908, but the damage was so slight
that little attention was paid to IL
In 1909 1t appeared in considerable
numbers over a small area near the
river on the north side. Just after the
blossoms had fallen and the apples
were beginning TO set, the worm was
was noticed by an orchardist in the
affected area, eating into small apples
and doing considerable damage. Our
fruit inspector made careful exami-
ton OF the entire district at this time,
and did not find very much indication
of the worm anywhere except in the
affected area spoken of above. A little
later, when the worms began to roll
themselves up in the leaves so that
they could be easily detected. they
4 were found 10 be pretty generally dis
tributed over the mesa on the South
side of the river, known as Lincoln
Park. They were not In sufficient num-
bers anywhere, however. 10 do seri-
Gus damage. Some Of the summer and
fall varieties, like the Yellow Trans
parent and Wealthy, were found to be
quite badly injured, In the fall our
frees we're So heavily loaded that the
few apples that were marked by the
worms were thrown away and never
missed, and very little thought was
sivea 10 the leaf-roller as destruc-
tive pest.
An examination by our fruit inspec-
tor. made in the early spring OF 1910,
showed many orchards on the south
side to have a good many egg patches
scattered over the trees, and some
eggs could be found in most OF the
orchards in that section
At blossoming time the worms be-
gan to hatch. and in all the orchards
where the the eggs we're found In any
numbers at all the worms were quite
plentiful, but nowhere that spring did
they affect the foliage seriously.
This season a few worms appeared
on the north side. but not in large
numbers at any point. At picking time
the fruit in the orchards where the
worm was known to be the worst was
quite badly marked. In some cases as
high as 25 per cent had TO be thrown
out.
During the winter of 1910 and 1911
an examination OF the orchards on the
south side showed that the pest was
increasing very rapidly. In some of
the worst-infested orchards the trees
bore large numbers of egg patches.
In the spring of 1911 1t was seen
that the entire south side would be
badly damaged. In some orchards the
worms destroyed fully so per cent Of
the fruit at blossom time by eating
into the base OF the blossoms, causing
the whole cluster to dry up and fall
OF; the orchards at this time looking
as though they had been hurt by
frost. At picking time the damage to
the apples was found in some orchards
TO run fully 20 per cent. and would
average 40 per cent for the whole
south side. an area covering about
$500 acres OF orchard land. On the
North side OF the river. in an area
covering about 5000 acres OF orchard.
and divided only by the river from the
south side, the damage was not over
10 per cent
During the winter of 1911 and 1912
it could be plainly seen from the num-
Der OF eggs that had been laid that.
unless something could be found %
check the ravages OF the pest. the 1912
crop would be destroyed. On the