The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1917-03-15

AUsAJ 40 "NAA GO AAASoGAA NV ~ NCAA%-
bat the ravages of this orchard pest
my only excuse in presenting this
short paper is my desire to bear my
part OF the work of this Society and
as far as possible, hold up the Horti-
cultural interests OF this community.
Just now there seems to be tendency
to let the orchard go or at least
carry 1t along with just as little labor
and expense as possible. This. in
my opinion. is very poor policy. as NO
orchard will stand neglect for even
year or two without serious damage
and 1t is far easier to maintain an or
chard In good condition by timely and
constant care each year than to bring
one back into condition after once
neglected.
When the pesky leaf roller first
made its appearance in this locality.
few. IL any of our fruit growers real
ided what serious pest II would be-
come. nor what a fight 1t would give
US. and while the pest is still very
much alive In our midst, yet the past
experience OF our most progressive
fruit growers has fully proven that
the destructive work of this pest can
be successfully controlled althc we
may not be able to eradicate the pest
itself.
In my opinion. the one remedy that
has proven its power to do the work
is the oil spray. In the early days
OF this fight We were told BY our col
lege people that we could probably
easily save our fruit by repeated
sprayings of strong solutions Of arse
nate of lead-Black Leaf 40. etc, but
after a season of experimenting in an
orchard in this locality Prof. Weldon
was forced to admit that they would
hatch out and destroy the fruit fast
er than be coald kill them on by the
use OF any OF these remedies and
that the oil spray was the only one
to be depended on.
My own experience In this line was
as follows: When the leaf roller
FIRST made its appearance in my orch
ard following the advice of the col
lege people ] gave two thoro spray
ings OF arsenate OF lead and finding
that the little rascais were fast get
ting the best OF my crop then gave
third spraying OF lead and Black
Leaf &C. combined. and while / did
save the foliage on my trees TO a rea.
sonable degree. yet at harvest time
fully SO percent of my apples were al
most worthless as a result of the rol.
Ter and the cherry crop almost a com
plete failure. That seasons spraying
cost me over 800 for material be-
sides the labor. The next year !
started out with a badly infested or
chard and used about $40 worth OF
oil alone with result that the
cherry crop was hardly damaged a,
all and the apples only showed two
percent damage; in fact the crop was
so clean and nice that one could have
packed them out blindfolded and the
grading would hardly have been ques-
TONED. At any rate they were good
enough so that when car load OF
Winesaps were sold and packed out
under the supervision of a Chicago
buyer. right from the tree. over 90
percent went into the fancy grade
and the carload netted me ssle I. o. b
Canon City.
My subsequent use of the oil spray
has always given me very good re
suits. although must admit that las,
years spraying did not seem to be
quite as effective as usual. but pos
sibly this was due to time OF applica
ton. together with the light setting
OF fruit, etc. This year I shall apply
the oil again and while some say Il
In too expensive to use. yet II seems
to me that past experience has proved
that It is far more expensive not tc
spray.
We are located on high priced land
and also have small Individual acre
age. 30 that we must use every means
possible to grow a high grade ol
fruit and to do this We certainly must
control the leaf roller. My advice
would be to apply the oil any time
now as soon as water Of a moderate
temperature and a bright sunshin,
day can be secured. Wait for a rea
sonably calm day. for my experience
has been that you can not do good
work with a strong wind as in such
time while you may appear to bs
wetting your tree thoroly. yet much
OF your material will be blown away
and wasted and ii seems to be neces