The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1916-09-07
COOLING MOTH Is
PUZZLE this, YEAR
(By LEROY Childs)

The development of the c0dling moth
this year has been extremely puzzling.
At the present time the Matching of
the second generation worms has been
observed since the 2Sth of August.
which is practically month later than
occurs normally. The maximum egg
deposition has not been reached and
will probably not be for at least ten
DAYS or two weeks. Adding eight or
ten days for Matching following deposit
tions II seems more than probable that
the maximum hatch Of this generation
cannot occur much before the 20-25th OF
September. This period is more than
month later than large number of the
orchardists applied their last spray.
Under ordinary conditions, arsenate
of lead will not prove very effective in
destroying young worms after 70 or 2S
days, owing to the fact that the apple.
ini increasing in size. unprotects itself
and will readily permit the entrance
Of the young worm.
Eggs will be deposited so late this
season that many will 20 into the
packed boxes on the fruit, hatching and
injecting the packed article unless pre-
cautions are taken. Inspectors should
know of wormy orchards and insist
that the apples be thoroughly wiped
with gloved hands while being graded.
The eggs which are deposited OIL the
fruit by the moths will thus be remov.
ed and trouble avoided.
There are many orchards in the val
ley that will not need this last spray.
Its application is up to each individual
grower. The question, What would
you consider dangerous number of
worms in the orchard at this time of
the year" is often asked. That is hard
to answer owing to the many factors
involved, but for an example the fol.
lowing figure may be of interest.
. Considering there is one late worm
on every tree in an orchard Of ten
acres, rs trees to the acre. an infesta-
tion of $50 worms in the orchard exists.
Half of these are males and half fe-
males. The female deposits about 40
eggs. Three hundrd and seventy.five
insects would, therefore, deposit Is. 600
eggs. These 5000 eggs are deposited
on the same number of apples which
become infested. The size of the ap-
Piles are 150s. The total destruction
possible from one worm to the tree in
q ten acre orchard is 1000 boxes; two
worms to the tree, 1900 boxes; five
worms to the tree, 5000 boxes. There
are many orchards in the valley with
an average of three to five worms to
the tree. Fortunately there are para
sites, unfavorable weather conditions
and the like which prevent unhindered
development or it would be practically
impossible to grow good fruit. If only
l0'per cent of the worms produce their
quota of progeny the application of
lead spray would more than pay.
No one dislikes to recommend this
spray, on top Of the numerous ones that
have already been applied. more than
does the experiment station. The con-
ditions existing this year. however,
warrant this in many instances and
many wormy apples will be saved if
the application is made.
The cool weather o. the past summer
permitted considerable scab develop.
ment: especially on the tender leaves
of the growing terminals. These scab-
by leaves are literally alive with spores
which with rainy weather existing for
picking season will cause decided in
creasing the percentages of scab in
fected fruit. Bordeaux $3.50 applied
with the lead spray suggested will save
much scab infection if rainy fall oc-
plfa