The Prescott daily news., 1916-02-24
ORCHARD AND GARDEN CROPS.
No. 4. Fighting Insects and Diseases.

By J. s. Knox, Extension Horticultur.
 ist, University of Arkansas.
 The man who expects to grow a first class crop of fruit under pres ent conditions must be prepared to fight the various kinds of insects and diseases that attack the crop Every year there are thousands of orchards over the country being killed or dam aged to such an extent that they will nevey yield a profitable crop to the owner, just because he has not used the proper precautions to keep these diseases and insects under control.
 Kinds O. Insects: All of the or chard insects come under one of two heads. First there is a type of insect which takes it's food supply from the plant by means of sharp beak or proboScis like that of the mosquito. In order to control insects of this type 1t is necessary to spray with some strong solution which when it comes in contact with the body of the insect will stop up the breathing pores and thus cause death. Insects belong ing to this scale are San Jose Scale, 1 Aphids of various types Oyster Shell Scale, Harlequin or cabbage bugs and some of the Squash bugs The sec ond kind of insects take their food supply by eating portions of the fruit or leaves and this type of insect is killed by spraying with poison sucn as lead arsenate or Paris green. This kind of insect is much more apt to be noticed than the other because the damage it does is much easier seen than is that of the sucking insect | However, either type oC insect can and often does enough d. mage to pre- vent the growing of first class fruit. 1 This is especially true in orchards where no effort is made to control | them. Among the insects which take
 their food by eating the fruit or the
 leaves are Cooling moth. canker
 worms, webb worms. caterpillar, cur culios and others.
 Kinds of Diseases: There are hun. dreds of different diseases that attack the different kinds of plants, but only a comparatively small number do any serious damage to the fruit crop and
 often two or three of these can be
 controlled by the same kind of spray
 material. Among the most serious
 diseases attacking the fruit crop are 1 blotch, scab, bitter rot, rust, brown
 rot of stone fruits, and black rot and
 mildew of grapes. The most serious
 diseases of the tree itself are cankers,
 rust, blight, leaf spots, crown gall.
 root rot
 Spray Materials: There are as
 many different kinds of spray ma terial on the market as there are dis eases to control, yet there are com. partively few of these which are used i to any great extent in our orchards. Lead arsenate either in the form of
 paste or powder is the principal poi.
 son used, However, Paris Green is
 used to a considerable extent in some | instances. Bordeaux mixture, which
 is a solution made of lime and cop | PNi HuA PAAtAbO VI biit NNOIt. IS one OI
 the best fungicides, and lime sulphur.
 a solution of lime and sulphur of diff ferent proportions is used both as an
 inseGtitude and as fungicide. Coal
 oil emulsion is a solution of coal oil. i soap and water of varying proportions
 is also quite commonly used as an
 insecticide as well as are various
 kinds of tobacco preparations.
 Spraying; For best results spray
 ing must be thoroughly done. The
 spray is only preventive at best and does not replace or cure damage aI- ready done. lt protects only the part
 of the fruit or tree which is covered l by the solution, hence the importance
 of thoroughness. If one leaves only
 a portion of a twig uncovered when spraying for San Jose scale. this small limp will be the means of
 spreading the scale over the whole tree before the year is over and pos. sibly get it started on other trees. Sometimes several sprayings may be necessary in order to eradicate a dis,
 ease or insect and this is not infre-
 quently the case with the most com mon of the orchard pests. Some of the : orchardists spray from five to eight