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THE
rrulf Grower's Guide
BY
B. F. HURST,
Ww
District Fruit Inspector for District No. 5.
i, F e Hurst,
Boise,
Ada Co, Idak
COPYRIGHT APPLIED FOR.
/
sy, 26 3809 ~ © i
7 TOONTIGRE 22CY »~
Nev us is 7 Contents. - An?
¥ 3.9. LT nf i
PAGE
fa Dh = er ee Tee eee ns
Heart and Sap Wood .... . ae 8
Its Parts and Their Activities......... ......... oo. ae
Leaf Buds and Fruit Buds............... ee dle See er
AEDES AESGELL th, coe, Se Pee. A DON Coen ce fee Peat «TE eres: i
THe LOWE cera ees Trees > bars 5 ee ae LZ
The Trunk or Stem a cite Tree. ..... i by fee 7
The Sap and Its Movements ............ . eee 9
Dieibiteot the Tree (oia4 vs Sout Gee of ai di 9 eS
IRGOGS hoe Me 8 fase ii dng FE > WATS. 62a Ee eek noe 6
LI
Bivins Ot Draes? ss ters ak oea este ee if heeg 7 eas
RST ERE eA UG LETC, Come a tie) Mata te Bret ease are Pelt sceat guaala ys 22
Gover Crop Culinre.) sia cceieen coer ees 1 dieses
Torino thewklGles sc. i245 yea. Ses byes see ones eT
PSEHNe Itt HecUree ys a tea) we ues Lee natch ee eee
Making of Orchard....... par Jen Raone ee eee ‘ah 20
Method of Blasting Where the Tree is to Set .. . ... 38
exe EPO Fh Olin AA TICY bara s eo meee ays ae pea See f4 22
Scale of Varieties of Fruits, Giving Size, CGualitys
Color, Moris Flavor: 3. 2e.u. 2 een ee? ye seer 32-33
Season Use and Origin..... .... ......s0..5. oo at
Berne MULWNe PGE. cp he iainwecss pexde ee . 34
Fie eros Cha CULES realy aya} ois ioe sree eas 29-30-31
When to Set Them Out......... Eta a Ueno )5 one 36
It.
RPG scien = quietest sat ial 2s) cen «es
Peach ...... . en eae es eee Teter. ... 44
POUT puts 2) More ecnWere 2c ei oss earls ten 1 en
The Pirst Veareise.e. pucerh 100s ss. ee 41
The Second, Year... cg. tegies Sete eree sees oi 2 oe TPE
LHe Third Vea oxic ceae es eibiwc teers Gene 42
Thinning the Prnit.. .ccceiseaeee ana eee poser a eee 44
IV. ‘
Gathering the Fruit................ fo. ees? 46
a
EKKO Ch ST oy
Gathering the Apple... ..2-. 224. ee er ee 46
Gathering the Pear......... ee ree a eee iy,
Catherine the Peach. .i¢.¢e:c2ns2es =. 4 2: i oa sako
Emunemin Sebi Prine meee estuaries eats r aut nate 49
Rm OsPACiMPCATSS oy.gak saat tes «90a a dewmeet s AO
V.
Irrigating the Orchard .......2......45:+- eee SO
SIMUGSE, Meads gente cess | fo 4.2 ise Msn yada aha 51
VI
PTY GGL erent res cscs a cee SS Geerg ered a8 tate g 59
Budding inthe Orchard 2. cic ste. con in 22es tse 62
Budding the Mary Ann Plum... ....52...+;¢. nas 3.24 (08
CVS Grattity 22) sees. 22 vole =) as tian ele ee 56
Grafting and buddies, Soe pe anes eee re Susake 52
MmheC@ostiof Clett Grafting. 2... sies denne eaes wes 59
he Bud. 42.) 324. See as ee | eee eee 60
eA Stal eee. BER tke ees kat hs 2M season ae 60
MPSS OMCTALION ecto, eedatdmns tae ot Ae aro cis Se cunde £e caresses ou
VII.
A pplensca be. mens 42.4 JO ee ee 97
Appearance of San jase Seale. ae: a ee Le eee 78
PMUMBUIATIES IOC S. 269 Qeete neces sca ce gh yw se ep eres 143
Mmpedravceiof Blignts: go22 cesasAde.s 22ec5 ae.. DLO
Banding. .._....... Cr ee ye ee kz a2. OF
Benefits of Spraying..................... Se oe ae 64
Bitter Rot of Apple...... ee ee hee ee 100
Cottommeushioni Scale: 22 2.00.5 242228 5544 etaes fe ns 85
Curtis Scale. 0 .eds22:- Pe ee rat ease ees SOA:
Codline. Moth or Apple Worth ie. 32 occ ck ote 2. od oi 86
uml leat Omthe Peach, 4.45.25 ae Se ed aoe LOO
Currants and“Gooseberry Borer... .-..9294326) oa- I4I
TRUE VEO BIO LIU 4 ereictensye a 2,26 2.3% sieve arse sveshera.s: dsigtelestare 109
Mlatenended Shomer... 6. .u). 2 Seah ees & cite te cree e 92
TMA ETO Uy geass “steleiea 2 52 Pe ag ein ie ad ans ae 72
COZENS EMO tee ee borders > arn eines ea Goo eee ..-- 108
PESeite comb tH) oe weye sey speach ayer ale: 82 en teeter bate eS, Se ede 114
CEC RU Ol ara ayer eeak eee wei tate) Maes mie vaca ys see 107
TAO W? LOND PLAY <2 2d hG cs odie es deeds Sie elke. See bereig oad 67
How to Apply the Spray:
Formula No. I.. ...... an eae ae oe
Forminla ONG. bis oa yeg asin Gare nce
Pormpia Oo. TITS keene reve eee
Porm lasing. WV aes ay aha coms waked
FLOW yb. y PLAY ne 32s. 2 ee see ee eee pee
History and Origin of San Jose Scale. ....
Habits of San Jose Scale.. sae ot a. ca, 2
How to Treat San ‘ats Scale. Dates ake 38 2 eee
ELON even lie BeCtlGcw on Wee wii.) 41.0 lldaainta ally inne
PUEIOICAl LS, beatae eye aiix t wwlnruceut sae sae you
How to Take Care of It.......-. ip ee Ta
Means of Dissemination ................
Maldewic89827,025 :2<; D rayaily ris decy..5: 6 ere are
Oyster Shell, Bark Scale. ... 00.00.00. er
AQUGE FRI PAs: «yy + 5-0 Bee x5 24 ee ee eee 12t \
Penis Pee HOEh as os ss faa he eakt Sayed Meee reas a (98
POAC sl Witt DOPE. 4s piers, 5 iene bie eee ee 94
Pear and Cherry Slug . sane 2 CSG SGU Sally ee
Powdery Mildew of the ‘Grape x ijtn #@o See ea ae 99
Phyllaxera Vastarix.......... » 4 ogee SPOS ae 103, Ff
PALUA ATED ESCH LE insite Wi ae ey atari, See | ee 83
BIPple Gupiiiee soa... cee 2a ee leer ka ea 130
Rese "Bestiow tae: ses es cina sce welds aa. 6 ee 107
Red Ruston Blackbérry.<::--,.- .s,.49se.Geee ee 107
Boseand Berry Stalei ss c1de. «ss 1.22 see Lee 86
Prec SPIE: tee nla ve ae eee as oP tii > ty > 95
BEMIGHG6 yoke es aire ae ds Cae Pra ota Soe 112
Remedies i. +: yh ih FO 34a ee eee
Spraying Pump and Fixtures............. 0... 71
Scions to Save Girdled Trees..............0.0-0008 5 74
Ret JOBS Dial Gis rites neki (pa em we eee yd oy 4 oe 75
spraying for Codling’ Moth: .., a¢ies.ccssises iamae @2
Sigaw Derry ROGE BONY ss5.c caen oie 2-5 «yey 5 ee 141
DYIPHIOS 6a ericies eesye ee me ee
Whe Diseased TSG... ease: ves M ree nck PL sh 4G ra:
The Spraying of Trees and Shrubbery. 2) ao 64
Treatment of Codling Moth..?.......:... . + Jo eee
The Canker Stage of Bitter Rot............... ..... 102
The Box: Mier (Bip is oomeves eel: 2 i262). oy 2h aOR 109
The Forest Tree Tent Caterpillars, .........60.4y eee 110
The Aphis or Plant Louse =... -a.c.1-.-... +: om oe 122
Jreatment OMATHIS. ites meccutisats oi... are 131
Phe Coccivelidae sc. iciesuesedesc sa: i... >>... ame
The Heméropiignbscis sock cuca s io Ley
HR ASS. 2. <2 aise eon eay eye 5. 142
When to Spray..... ea eee 66
Woolly Aphis,.......... 3 = See SE SOS; bas 1.5) s ee
FOREWORD.
The time has come when the successful
orchardist is one of the most important fac-
tors in the up-building of our State. The
fruit industry of Idaho (only a few years ago,
entirely undeveloped and unsystematic) has
reached a rank second to none. In the past
decade it has more than doubled, and every
year shows a tremendous increase in the
number of trees set out and in the profits real-
ized from the enlarged shipments. From
three acres of Anjou Pears, last year, Mr. H.
C. Myers of Boise received thirty-two hundred
dollars. The Idaho Horticultural exhibit
at Chicago in 1893 won fifty gold, silver, and
bronze medals. At the irrigation congress at
Ogden, where all irrigation states were invited
to compete, Idaho won first prize, a five-
hundred dollar loving-cup, for the best and
cleanest fruit, freest from all insect pests.
At -the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Idaho
received gold medals on a collection of fruit,
and fifty-six gold, silver, and bronze medals.
The climate is suited to the culivation and
2 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
improvement of the best species of fruit.
The soil is unsurpassed. ‘he state laws
protect the fruit growers, as well as the buvers,
from the incalculable evils of diseased fruits
or trees. ‘The throwing open of new lands,
the development of irrigation projects (includ-
ing the building of the great reservoirs,) the
favorable market, all these influences are
attracting capital into the planting of com-
mercial orchards. Nature, the government,
aud the market have formed a _ powerful
triumvirate to secure for Idaho a leading
and honorable place among the fruit-produc-
ing states.
Now, while there is certain profit for every
investor in orchards, it is absolutely necessary
that the man who intends to go into the fruit
business should inform himself fully concern-
ing the best methods of carrying it on.
What would be thought of any one’s estab-
lishing a firm to handle farm implements if
he did not know a plow from amower? What
chances for success would a person be likely
to have who tried to mine without knowing
how to tell valuable ore from non-mineral
quartz? It 1s no more.reasonable to buy or
plant an orchard in ignorance of local condi-
tions concerning climate, soil, best and most
profitable varieties, and allied subjects. It is
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 3
to be regretted, however, that many such
ventures are made. Unfortunately, their
certain failures harm the community as well
as the individual. When money is wasted in
badly chosen stock, when the orchards are
planted contrary to every sound principle of
horticulture, when the trees are not properly
pruned, sprayed, or watered, under these
conditions the losses work serious injury to
the orchardists and to his state.
It is with the intention of doing away with
at least a part of these injudicious investments
and practices that I have prepared this
pamphlet. For a number of years I have
devoted my entire time to the study of the
orehardist’s problems, and while I have not
yet, by any means, solved them all, yet I
believe that I am ina position to offer some
useful suggestions and cautions deduced from
my own and others’ experience. It is the
“purpose of this pamphlet to discuss the prob-
lem of what kinds of trees to buy, their
proper setting out, and how to care for them
both in the healthy and in the diseased states.
It seems to me that there should bea place
for such a guide, and if itis of some use to
any orchardist, it will have served its purpose.
Throughout the book acknowledgment
has been made of the various sources used in
4 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
the preparation of certain parts, but I wish to
make special mention here of my indebtedness
to A. F. Hitt, State Inspector and Pure Food
Commissioner of Idaho, for his helpful interest;
to Alexander McPherson, former State Fruit
Inspector and Pure Food Commissioner of
Idaho, for his invaluable suggestions and
critical reading of the manuscript; and to L.
F. Henderson, Professor of Botany in the
University of Idaho, for his generous permis-
sion to reproduce here parts of articles pub-
lished heretofore by him.
B. EF. AU RS
Boise, Idaho, Sept. 5, 1905.
The Life of the Tree.
Although it belongs more especially to the
province of Botany to discuss the various
parts of a tree and their functions, yet ina
book which is meant to be a guide for the
orchardist, it is certainly not out of place to
give those points regarding which every man
who is interested in trees should be informed.
In compilation of these facts, I have relied
almost entirely on articles previously pub-
lished; and by the kind permission of their
authors, I am here able to reproduce those
articles in an adapted form. The works
chiefly consulted are as follows: ‘‘American
Horticultural Manual’’ by J. L. Budd and N.
E. Hansen; ‘‘Something of Plant Physiology,
Theoretic and Applied’’ by Professor lL. F.
Henderson, published in the proceedings of
the Eleventh Annual Convention of the North-
west Fruit Growers’ Association.
A Tree.
iS EARLS AND THEIR ACTIVITIES.
The parts of a tree are the root, the stem,
the leaves and the flower.
6 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
ROOTS.
The roots serve the purpose of holding the
toperect and of supplying the water with its
dissolved elements for sustaining growth.
The deep roots (tap roots) mainly take up
the water, and the surface rootscliefly take up
nitrates and the other essentials of growth.
The tap roots extend toa depth of twenty
or thirty feet where soil is favorable, the depth
depending on the nature of the sub-soil and
the location of the water level.
The branch, or surface roots, reach farther
than is ordinarily suspected; asarule, they
extend underground over an area as great as
that occupied in the air by the spreading of
the branches above.
If you examine the delicate end of a young
root, inspecting it through even an ordinary
magnifying glass, you will observe at its
extremity a small brown cap fitting closely
over the growing end and protecting it from
abrasion as it pushes its way through the soil.
A little back of this cap, tiny finger-like,
single-celled root-hairs begin to appear, and
farther back these root-hairs are seen to be of
continually greater length until their full
erowth is reached, when they wither and drop
off,
Through these little hairs covering a single
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 7
‘zone near the tip of each rootlet, which can
hardly be observed by the naked eye, takes
place practically the whole of the enormous
absorption of water and salt from the earth.
The three most essential elements of the
growth of a fruit tree are carbon, oxygen, and
nitrogen. Carbon is provided through the
leaves of the tree which are its breathing
pores. Oxygen is furnished in the water.
But nitrogen, although abundant in the air
like the carbon, can not be assimilated by the
plant except by means of the roots.
THE TRUNK OR STEM OF THE TREE.
The stem or trunk isthe axis of the tree,
the part which bears all the other organs.
The particular characteristic of the stem is
leaf-bearing. The place where the leaf or
leaves are borne is called a node, and the
naked place between two nodes is called an
inter-node. ‘The inter-node usually reaches
its maximum length at the end of the first
season. After this it increases in diameter
but DOES NOT elongate. This point is often
misunderstood.
The stem growth is divided into two classes
according to the age which the stems obtain.
Herbaceous stems live only one year. ‘ite
8 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
woody stems live more than one year, some
even more than a hundred years.
As to cell growth, our cultivated plants are
divided into two main classes; the ‘‘exogens’’
or outside growers, and the ‘‘endogens’’ or
inside growers. Corn, asparagus, palin, fern,
and all tropical fruits are inside growers.
Trees are outside growers.
In the first division (Eudogens) the new
cell growth is mingled with the older tissue,
and growth of the stem is accomplished bya
distension, or by pressing outward from the
inside. This class of stem does not show the
bark-wood and pith of the outside growers.
The exogenous division includes all fruit
and forest trees.
HEART WOOD AND SAP WOOD.
In a one-year-old seedling, the stem is
composed wholly of live or sap wood; but
with increased age, the older layers, or rings
of growth, are buried by the newer ones. The
newer layers, with light color bark on the out-
side are called sap wood, or alburnum. As
the tree gets older, the inner wood becomes
drier, darker and more solid.
This interior dark wood is not alive. If
kept from the air by the sap wood and perfect
bark it may remain sound for a century or
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 9
more, but if the air is admitted by cutting or
by accident, it will soon make a rotten spot
in the stem.
The heart wood is not alive, as most people
suppose, and, if it were, it could not carry
any substance whatever to the tree. Only
the roots can do this. Consequently, the
boring of holes in the body of the tree, and
the inserting of sulphur to destroy disease is
entirely useless.
The heart of the tree may be perfectly
sound, but is dead to all life-giving purpose.
The life, or sap wood, is not more than one-
half inch thick, and carries the sap from the
roots. Anything taken into the tree must be
placed at the end of the hair-roots and must
be of the nature of the tree-food.
Mineral is not a food substance; conse-
quently it will not be carried by the roots.
Any break of the sap-passage would only be
Imgrtiad tote tree.
THE SAP AND ITS MOVEMENT.
The crude sap, which is gathered up by the
root hairs at the end of the roots, is taken up
by the larger roots to the trunk by way of the
stem of the tree. It then ascends the tree
rising through the sap-wood to all parts of
the tree. The sap hasa tendency to move
16 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
upward; and so all limbs that grow straight
grow much longer than those that bend down
because they receive more sap. This sap
starts the growth of the bud, which develops
the leaf and the new growth.
When the sap has reached the top of the
tree it reverses its course, and on the way down
carries food to all lower parts, especially to
the young roots. Asthe sapdescends, it flows
along the inner bark, going mainly through
the sieve-cells. ‘These lie just outside of the
Cambium layer, or that layer which yearly
adds to the growth of wood on one side and
bark on the other.
As the sap flows downward, all parts of the
tree increase in size. If a label-wire is left
on the stem of a young tree, we find that it is
soon sunk-into the bark and wood; and the
part above enlarges, while the stem below
reiains the same size. ‘This would surely
show that cell-forming material descends near
the Cambium layer. In the same way, if we
remove a ring of bark in June from the stem
of an apple tree, we soon check the down-
ward movement under the bark. Presently
we observe a process of healing over the
wound by cell-formation in the cut surface
above the ring. As the season advances,
we notice the ripening and matured condition
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE Tel
of the wood above has changed leaf-buds into
fruit-buds. ‘This device is one often resorted
to in order to force a tree into bearing.
LEAF-BUDS AND FRUIT-BUDS.
Buds that appear in the axil of the leaf are
in some respects like seeds.
The grape, and some fruits and shrubs
grow from planted buds in the ground, with
a little wood attached, and it may be said
that nearly all buds of woody plants will grow
when inserted under the bark of the variety
Gr thersdime Species,
The greatest difference between the buds
aud the seeds is that the leaf-buds produce the
individual parent without change, while the
seeds re-produce usually the species, but not
the variety.
The fruit-bud of the peach and of the apri-
cots grows on each side of the bud. In the
apple and the pear, the fruit-buds are formed
on spurs.
3uds are usually formed in the nodes of the
stem and in the axil of the leaves; but some
species develop buds under certain conditions
at any point along the stem or root. These
are called adventitious buds. Some of these
are cherries, and plums. Blackberries and
to THE FRUIT.«GROWER’S GUIDE
raspberries may develop such buds when cut
back or wounded.
On the end of the spur by the stem of the
fruit, if there is any fruit on the spur, a leaf-
bud always starts. If the tree is not too
heavily laden with fruit, this leaf-bud will
change to a fruit-bud. If the tree has not
vitality enough to mature the fruit on the tree
and change this leaf-bud to a fruit-bud, this
leaf-bud will remain a leaf-bud, and the spur
will not bear any fruit the next year.
The fruit-buds are formed on apple trees
through July and August. Any fruit-grower
with experience can tell if the tree will bear
fruit the following year.
The Leaf.
(Written by Prof. L. F. Henderson, University of Idaho. )
The leaf is a part of the plant beautifully
adapted to certain ends. In most cases it is
a horizontally expanded organ, with one side
turned towards the sunlight, in order to
enable it to catch as much of this as possible.
‘To the naked eye it consists of a delicate frame
work, holding out to light and air the green
parenchyma or pulp that fills the intervals.
The purpose of the frame work is a double
one, to hold out in a horizontal direction the
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 1g)
pulp, and to conduct rapidly water with its
contents, called crude sap, to all parts of the
pulp. If now we make a microscopical sec-
tion of the leaf, and view it with a moderate
power, we see a more wonderful mechanism
for digestion and breathing than the human
lungs and stomach, on account of its sim-
plicity. We see first an impervious skin or
epidermas covering both sides of the leaf, save
” leave
where little mouths, or ‘‘stomata,
ways open to the underlying tissues. These
stomata are beautifully constructed so as to
shut up when the leaf is lacking in moisture,
and to open when there is an abundance.
This controls transpiration, or loss of moisture,
with exactness. At thesame time they allow
when open full egress to the air with its car-
bonic acid gas—a most important thing.
Right under each stomataisa small air chaim-
ber, into which the aircan passreadily. Then
the cells of the green pulp, called the ‘‘meso-
phyll,’’ are arranged very closely about these
air chambers, and thus enable the air, when
admitted through the stomata, to circulate
freely amongst these cells of the pulp. Ifwe
look more carefully at one of these pulp cells,
we find it irregular in shape, but with a uni-
formity as to work and contents. Each has
askin, each living protoplasm, each green color
14 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
bodies, or chloroplasts, and each a nucleus.
These minute color bodies are wonderful
things and fill a wonderful position in the
‘world’s workers,’’ for upon their action the
plant depends for its own existence; upon its
elaborated materials depend all parasitic
plants, such as mildews, rust, scab and a host
of others; upon it depend all saprophytic
plants, such as mushrooms; finally upon it
directly depend all animals, whether herbi-
vorous or carnivorous, and man himself. — It
is no idle statement to say that were these
little bodies to be suddenly and universally des-
troyed or cease for some reason their activities,
all life upon the globe would cease as a con-
sequence. These plastids, or green color
bodies, are composed of protoplasm, and are
colored green by the fluid called cholorphyll
DoD
which permeates them. Their office is to
accomplish, what no chemist has ever been
able to do or ever will do, namely, under the
influence of sunlight, change the inorganic
materials in crude sap into organized carbo-
hydrates, such as starch, sugar, cellulose, and
many others. ‘The crude elements needed,
as before stated, are simply the carbon in the
atmosphere, and the water in the soil when
taken up by the root-hairs. But protoplasm
cannot exist without a fourth element, namely,
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 15
nitrogen, nor could it do its work in building
up the carbohydrates; nay, none of the pro-
teids, such as exist in graham flour, beans, lean
meat and a host of others, could be formed at
all. ‘The starch formed in this laboratory in
the day, is carried away at all times while the
leaves are on the trees, and nourishes not only
the leaf, but flowers, stem and root. ‘Truly
we may say, therefore, that plant growth is
more downward and outward, than upward
and outward. ‘The wood which always forms
above a cut, not below it, on a tree is further
evidence of this. Hurriedly and imperfectly
I have attempted to explain to you this
wonderful change of the raw materials all
about us into the higher elaborated material
needed for plant growth, and now to a few
practical details.
It is now evident, why, when we cut off
most of the roots of a plant, we should also
cut down its top proportionally. Remember
that no tree can absorb practically any crude
sap except through its root-hairs, which are
ou the ends of the most delicate rootlets.
As nearly all of these have been removed
when the tree is taken from the soil, very
little sap can ascend the trunk till more
roots have been formed. If therefore all of
the branches, and as a consequence all of the
16 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
leaves, are left on that weakened tree, they
will tend to do too much work for the poor
root system, and the plant will either die or
be injured for many years. On the other
hand how are you going to urge the plant to
put out plenty of adventitious, or unusual
roots, along the cut stubs left when the tree
is planted? They can only be formed by
having elaborated material sent down to
them from above. Just as idle to expect
them to form and do their work without this
assistance as it would be to keep alive and at
work a lot of coal miners underground with-
out any provisions sent to them from with-
out. The only true sources of supply for
these forming roots are, first, from the re-
serve starch laid aside in stem, branch, and
root fragments and turned into digestible
sugar under the warming influences of the
spring sun; second, new material elaborated
by the leaves. Of course, before any leaves
appear 1 spring, the roots must depend up-
ou the first source of supply, but this will
soon be exhausted and then there must be
abundant leaves to furnish this material.
So the proper balance is to make the head of
the tree just large enough to do this work
and no larger.
If the plant to be removed and replanted
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 17
be already in leaf, and especially if it bea
large tree, as sometimes becomes necessary,
the greatest care should be taken to leave a
few strong leaders with their leaves, to cut
back all the rest, and to cover their cut ends
with tar, wax, or paint, so as to prevent the
waste of sap and natural evaporation through
the myriad open vessels which have been
cut and have not yet healed over.
The Flower.
A knowledge of the parts of the flower is
essential in detecting the varieties that ripen
in the pistil before the pollen of the flower is
ready for pollination.
Flowers are for the production of seed.
Stems and branches which for a time put
COR.
Figuret. Divided Cherry flower. (After Goff.) ‘‘c,”
Calyx; “‘co7v.,” Corolla; °‘,” Pistil; “ss,” Stigma,
18 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
forth leaves for vegetation may at length put
forth flowers for reproduction.
The circle of green leaves around a flower
is called the calyx or flower-cup. Each
separate part of the calyx is called a sepal.
The colored circle of leaves within the calyx
is called the corolla, and each separate leaf
in this group iscalleda petal. Within these
two circles stand the organs of the flower.
One of these (there may be a large group of
them in a single flower) is called the stamen.
It consists of two parts; the long slender
thread-like stem is called the filament. ‘The
knob at the top is the anther. Anthers are
filled with pollen, a powdery substance made
up of minute grains. The second organ in the
flower is called the pistil. It also is composed
of two parts. ‘The slender thread is called the
style, and the little knob at the top is called the
stigma. Atthe base of the style is the ovary.
The pollen shed from the anthers, when
they open, fallson or isconveyed to the stigma.
These are afterwards fertilized by theovary.
Flowers of the orchard fruits are divided
in two classes, Inferior and Superior. In the
Inferior flowers, the fruit is formed below the
calyx as in the apples, the pears, and most
seeded fruits. In the Superior flowers, the
fruit is formed above the calyx. This is
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 19
fie’ class to‘ which belong the-cherry, the
plum, and the peach.
In the apple and the pear, the pistil and
calyx grow together, and the fruit is prac-
tically the enlargement of the whole flower.
In this class of fruit, the calyx is shown at
fhe eye of the fruit; while in the cherry; it is
shown at the lower end of the stem. The
Superior fruits, such as strawberries, rasp-
berries, peaches, plums, apricots, and grapes,
are more exposed when in flower to the frost,
and dry air, and other weather changes.
And the ovary of the fruit-bud is more lhkely
to be injured in winter, than that of the
inferior, since the latter are protected by the
base of the calyx. It is also true, as a rule,
that the fruit that forms above the calyx is
not as well fed as those below, as the connec-
tion with the leaves is not direct.
When the stamens and pistils are formed
in the same flower it is called perfect or
hermaphrodite, as in most of our orchards
fruits, and garden plants. But when only
one sex of these essential organs is found in
the same flower, it is called imperfect. Even
when the flower seems perfect in all respects,
it often, in the cultivated fruits, seems incap-
able of self-pollination. This is not confined
to the individual flower or to the flower of
20 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
-a single tree, or to a large block of trees. As
a rule, large blocks of a single variety of an
orchard-fruit have not proved productive.
We know that the most profitable orchards
are those of many varieties, one variety
sometimes refusing to fertilize itself.
The consensus of opinion at this time
among experienced persons is that it is best
to mingle varieties in a commercial orchard.
Varieties of our fruit differ materially in
their blossoming habits. Some _ varieties
expand all their flowers in a brief period,
others seem to have two sets of flowers. if
the first blossoms are destroyed by frost, the
the later ones are numerous enough for a full
crop.
The Making of an Orchard.
SELECTION OF LAND.
In the previous chapter, we have discussed
the parts of a tree, their several functions,
and the way in which the tree grows. Hav-
ing reached now some understanding (how-
ever elementary) of a tree, the orchardist is
better fitted to go about the making of his
orchard.
In this undertaking, the first step, natur-
ally, is the selection of land. Except in the
arid belt, sloping ground is preferable, as the
THE FRUIT GROWER S GUIDE 21
drainage will be good. ‘Trees should not
have too much water, because it cuts off the
supply of air from the roots, tending to suffo-
cate them, and they, as well as the leaves,
are breathing organs. (It may be remarked
here, in passing, that pitted fruits do not re-
quire as much water as seeded fruits, and
the planter should take these facts into con-
sideration when setting out his trees. )
An orchard on a slope has the advantage
of air-drainage and is not so apt to be affected
by frosts. This 1s explained by the fact that
cold air being heavier than warm air, it
always seeks the lower levels, and, hence,
tends to slide off the hill-sides and settle in
the lower places where frosts are found iot
only to be heavier, but to occur later in the
spring. Due to this circumstance, it may
often be observed that the orchard on the
side of the hill will escape frost entirely,
while that in the hollows below is fatally
affected. In regard to the sol, it may be
said that a gravelly or porous soil, several
feet underlaid, is excellent, for it doubly
assures good drainage. A rich, loamy soil is
ofcourse the most desirable. In the irrigated
section, ease and thoroughness of irrigation
are of as much importance as drainage; but
it should be remembered that water should
22 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
never be allowed to stand around the trees.
Any land that grows tall, thrifty sage-brush
may be counted on as highly desirable land
for fruit-culture.
THE PREPARING OF THE LAND.
In the selection of land for an orchard, it
is much wiser not to use virgin soil but to
take, instead, soil that has been in clover
and plowed under for a year or two, because
the decomposed vegetation enriches the
ground forming the much-needed humus.
Perhaps a few useful suggestions may be
made here as to the proper treatment of the
land previous to its conversion into orchard
and during the time the trees are bearing.
This cultivation may be one of two kinds
technically known as, (1) clean-culture, (2)
cover-culture.
CLEAN-CULTURE.
By clean-culture is meant the plowing up
and pulverizing of the land without using it
for crops of any sort.
In all districts where the rain-fall is not
sufficient for natural growth, or where there
is a scarcity of irrigation water, it is abso-
lutely necessary to cultivate the soil of an
orchard. Otherwise, it will never be suff-
ciently damp. The force of capillary attrac-
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 23
tion in all firm soil is constantly sending the
moisture upward to the surface. As fast as
the top layer becomes dry, the moisture
arises from below, and it also in turn is evap-
orated, During a long dry summer, this
process will continue to a depth of several
feet, the top layer of dirt becoming as hard
and dry asa brick. Now, if the surface soil
is broken up by cultivation, this difficulty
will be avoided, because the force of capillary
attraction will be destroyed as soon as the
layers of soil are disturbed. The particles
become so separated that the mutual connec-
tion of the small inter-spaces no longer
exists.
To reach the most perfect results, the soil
should not only be broken up in rough clods
(though this treatment is better than none
at all) but should be thoroughly pulverized.
When this latter process has been well done,
free access of air is not permitted to the
lower strata at all. Fine loose earth acts as
a blanket to retain the moisture, as only the
surface which comes into immediate contact
with the air dries out. The moisture which
is preserved below is then kept for the exclu-
sive use of the tree or plant. As fast as the
supply is exhausted, it is replenished from
the soil below; or, if evaporation ceases, the
24 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
roots will extend through the moist, loose
soil and get all their needed nourishment.
This theory may be easily tested. Re-
move the top dirt from a considerable space
ina well-cultivated garden or orchard, and
you will find moisture two or three inches
from the surface; while the same quality of
land on an adjacent spot left uncultivated
will prove to be dry to the depth of several
feet. It will be nothing but hard earth, dry
asa bone. In sucha hard baked earth, the
sun heat is also conducted downward very
rapidly on a hot day, in many cases, of
course, doing serious injury to the roots. A
well-cultivated surface acts as a mulch, pre-
venting rapid evaporation and the conveying
downward of too great heat.
The depth of cultivation or the thickness
of the mulch must be sufficient to prevent
the access of dry air to the firm soil below.
The drier the soil, the thicker the mulch
or pulverization should be. ‘Two or three
inches over a hard pan-layer formed in some
soils by cultivation, will not hold moisture
well. Generally the cultivation should go
twice that depth. Of course the capillarity
in a heavy soil is much greater than in a
light soil, and the pulverization of the sur-
face is, therefore, much more difficult.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 25
When pulverization is not thoroughly done,
the soil should be broken up to a greater
depth in proportion. <A well-cultivated sur-
face will both catch and hold the water more
easily. Water flows off quickly from a hard
surface to a lower level before it can pene-
trate the solid surface. Loose soil 1s porous
like a sponge and holds all that falls upom it,
the excess seeping away.
Let this be the grower’s watch-word—
‘Cultivate in winter to receive the moisture.
Cultivate in the summer to retain the mois-
ture.’? Rain that falls in the winter seasons
is often lost by too late cultivation. Do not
fail to plow in the winter whenever it can be
done without fear of washing away the soil.
This is the best way to store the water be-
low. It is a sad waste to allow the rain-
water that is enriched by air-washing to
carry away the soil particles. ‘There results
a three fold loss—the fertility of the rain-
water, the loss of the silt, the most fertile
part of the soil, and the loss of the moisture.
It is best to plow early in the spring, when
the vegetation has a good start, but when it
is not yet so high but that it can be well
turned under. The weeds at this time are
uot so woody and will rot more readily, thus
acting as a fertilizer.
26 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
Clean-culture of the orchard and small
fruit plantation, without the application of
manure or other organic material, will soon
so change the mechanical conditions of the
soil that air cannot enter to give life to the
protoplasm of newly formed and growing
roots. ‘The continual clean-culture without
the aid of vegetable matter will soon take
the humus from the soil, starving the roots
and whole plant growth by lessening the
supply of nitric acid and its combinations
with alkalies, such as nitrate of soda and other
useful plant nutriments.
COVER-CROP ICULTIVA TION.
In all irrigated districts, and in districts
where the rain-fall is plentiful, the cover-crop
is more beneficial than the clean-culture, and
should by all means be preferred.
The best crops for this purpose are peas,
beans, cowpeas, vetch, or other leguminous
plants for soil covering during late summer
and fall and for winter protection. ‘This
makes the conditions more likeanatural forest,
and supplies nitrogen and surface soil humus.
While the orchard trees are young, and the
supply of plant food is plentiful, buckwheat
makes a good shade for holding the moisture.
It covers the ground earlier than the crops
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 27
first mentioned, and is easier to turn under.
When a crop of oats and wheat is desired,
they may be used provided the soi! is well
broken up immediately after harvesting them.
Neither one adds any virtue to the soil, but
rather takes from it. They may be used
merely for shade and for helping to bear the
expense of the orchard until the trees begin
to bear fruit. It isagood plan to sow clover
with the grain (oats being preferred among
the grains.) “Then plow theclover under late
in the fall or in the early spring. This pro-
cess should be pursued for at least six years.
Afterwards, it should be sowed to red clover.
Let the second crop of the second or third
year go toseed, then plow it under in the fall.
The decay of vegetation makes humus and
enriches the ground, and the great mass of
the many rootlets acts as a conductor to con-
vey the moisture to a greater depth. When
well-rotted, it makes the ground porous, thus
aiding sub-irrigation. The ground should be
leveled and ditches made at once, as the
young clover may come up right away, and
it should not be molested.
Some authorities contend that this kind of
culivation is a remedy for pear blight.
Many think that the continued orchard-
culture uses up the moisture and robs the
28 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
fruit trees of it at the time when it 1s most
needed for perfect maturation of the fruit.
The first and even second leguminous
cover-crop sown in a bearing orchard will
result in diminished supply of soil-moisture,
as compared with the method of continual cul-
ture, yet this is favorable to the perfect
maturing of comparatively young trees, and
the turning-under of the two or more leg-
uminous crops makes a fine supply of humus
and nitrogen, which so changes the mechani-
cal texture of the soil that it retains the
moisture all through the season better than
the cultivated orchards that have less of the
nitrogen and humus.
(For a more exhaustive and thoroughly trustworthy
treatment of the subject of clean-culture, consult ‘‘The
California Fruits” by Edward J. Wickson, who has kindly
consented to the adaption of his chapter on the topic
which appears in this volume. For an exellent presenta-
tion of cover-culture, consult ‘‘American Horticultural
Manual’’ by J. L. Budd, by whose kind permission his
treatment of the matter has been used asa basis of discus-
sion here.)
Buying the Trees.
If, now, the orchardist has properly pre-
pared his land, lis next problem will be a
judicious selection of trees. In this connec-
tion it is important that he should know
where and what he should buy.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 29
Wihere:to:buy-" Buy ‘all. trees of:a, home
nursery-man, and select them yourself, so
that you may be sure of getting good thrifty
trees. Home nursery-men give a bond as to
the proper name of the tree and as to its
healthy condition. Trees that are shipped
in are very often 1mproperly labeled, as many
orchardists have found out to their sorrow;
and in many cases the plants are not in good
condition.
What to buy: A yearling tree is prefer-
able because it has not been ruined by im-
proper pruning. For a commercial orchard,
select not more than eight varieties of apples.
Below is given a list of varieties which I
should consider preferable for an orchard in
this section:
Hight Varieties of Apples:
(1) Yellow Newtown
(2) White Pearmain
(3) Winter Banana
(4) Grimes’ Golden
(5) Roman Beauty
(6) Jonathan Wine Sap
(7) Arkansas Black
Four Varieties of the Late Pear:
(1) Anjou
(2) Winter Nelis
(3) Duchess de Bordeaux
(4) Clairgean
30 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
‘Two Varieties of the Early Pear:
(1) Bartlett
(2) Flemish Beauty
Two Varieties of the Prune:
(1) Italian
(2) Dawson
Five Varieties of the Peach:
(1) Early Crawford
(2) Elberta
(3) Champion
(4) Globe
(5) Wheatland
Two Varieties of the Nectarine:
(1) Early Newington
(2) Early Violet
Three Varieties of the Blackberry:
(1) Wilson
(2) Snyder
(3) Kittatinny
Two Varieties of the Dewberry:
(i, Laverehia
(2) Mayer
Red Raspberry:
(1) Cuthbert
(2) Logan—Cross between the red rasp-
berry and the blackberry
Three Varieties of the Gooseberry:
(1) English Favard
(2) Chautauqua
(3) Industry
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 21
Two Varieties of the Strawberry:
(1) Green Mary
(@) *Clide
In addition to this rather informal list, I
offer a table of fruits which I have arranged
in the order of their preference according to
my judgment. Fora still fuller list of tables
consult government reports.
APPLES,
[ Kry.--Sizk, scale 1 to 10: 1, very small; 10, very large. For:
c, conical; i, irregular; o, oblate; ob, ublong; ov, ovate; r, round.
Coxor: d, dark; g, green; r, red; ru, russet; s, striped; w, white;
vy, yellow. FLAVOR: a, acid; m, mild; s, sweet. QUALITY, scale 1 to
10: 1, very poor; 10,-best. SEASON: e, early; m, medium; 1, late;
vy, very. USE: c, cider; d dessert; k, kitchen; m. market. Abbrevia-
tions of names of places of origin: Am., America; Eng., England;
Eur., Europe; Fr., France; Ger., Germany; Holl., Holland; Ont.,
Ontario; Rus., Russia; Scot., Scotland. ]
| = | x
Isle} e1/12/68 z
wa) a m <|2] wa 2
Nip] o 3 Hl g a
Inj{/Q)}O}] & |Hiny| Pp )
\ | |
Yellow Newtawn.......... | 7-8'9-10! ye ro} al vl| dkm| NY
White Winter Pearmain..| 5-6 8-9, yr! robc} m| 1} dm| Am
Winter Banana.....0..aess 8-9, 8-9 wyr| rob] m} 1) dkm
Grime’s Goldénss sucess 5-69-10) y} roc} m ] dj Va
JOnathanancss scinctsessietas 6-7, 8-9 yr rc} m{| ml) dkm| NY
Rome Beautycisd sims ia: 8-9| 6-7| yrs rc} mj} 1) dkm| Ohio
WIRESADie ass a00 sos nines ae 5-6| 7-8) yr| rob] a| vi] dkm| N J
Arkansas Blackwiec...00s 7-8; 7-8 yr ro} m ]} km] Ark
SOMZENDUTE. ic. -taclecaves es 6-8} 10) rr} obec} mj ° 1 ci) SN
Gravenstein 8-9) 8-9) yr oi! ma’ em} dkm| Ger
Yellow Bellflower 8-9; 8-9) “y!| obec) al 1| dkm| N J
VorleLinperial: c. tsiatvenwen 7-8| 6-7, yrs] cio} m| 1} dm, Pa
SW dal esti ee ais ace aaues 7-8) 7-8) gy ro) m ] d| NY
Northern Spy 8-9 8-9 yrs} roc) m) ml) dkm) NY
Rhode Island Greenlng....| 8-9 7-8 gy ro} a !) dkm| RI
BIVG PeArtialliies +55 ccerns 8-9) 6) drs re} m }} dm) Am
CANO ceed niet ciegeamedias eee 7-8 5-6 yrs oi m mi m Tenn
Ben Davis..... cndaee POukes ey 6-9) 4-5) yrs} rov| m1 m cy
A lextiidl@fucnc«'s se lent axes 9-10] . 5! yrs oc| al m| km| Rus
Pe Wate? ¢ 206s .ssh gues » 8-9) 4-5 yrs. ro, m!) mi) km} Wis
Early Harvest ......... .-| 0-6) 9) yw ro} ma} ve dk} Am
Red Abtraclian.¢: nun osn- 7-8| 5-6! rgy rc} al e dk} Rus
Red June... 3-4| 6-7| rs} ove} m| ve dk} NC
Rambo. 7-8 wyt o|} m) m dk Pa
Missutini Pippidiesers ieee :| 5-6] 3-4| yrs rc} m| | m Mo
Early dieawhetiy, ipecee 3-4, 6-7) yrs} rc} m|- e}] dm; NY
Maiden Blush... 5-6) 5-6) yr o| m}me}| km} N J
Wateneh tenors peces oe se 6-7) 7-8 yrs} ro} m| 1 m) Am
Walbridebieccc.sccs. .«-s-| 5-6] 5-6] yrs oc) m 1} dm lil
Wallow: LWitis tas se vedase 6-7; 5-6) yr} roc} mj ve m| Va
Pay WAN ELL) Sg cuter perctae es a2 8-9) 8-9) =r} rc 1} mdk! Kan
Sith Cidericwniis- soe sewss 6-7, 5-6) yrs} roc; m 1) km Pa
Sri wu qawasaletinad nee sks | 8-9] 5-6) yrs} robc}| mj] 1 m) Ohio
Sealy wasn acsinnathg 64 7-8 8 yr, ocr) mo! ml! dkm| Me
Summer Pearmain ....... _ 8-6 9-10 rrw reo) om em) d) Am
Summer Queen....... seess| 6-7] 5-6] yrs! re} al e| km| Am
‘Talman Sweet | 5-6' 6-7) oy ro| s! li km] RI
‘Tompkins King. 8-1) 8-9 yrs) roc| m) 1} dm} NJ
Jefferies....., | 5-6) 8-9) yrs} oc| m] e| dj} Pa
Limbertwigs.< sicvis ax sseeee| 6-7) 3-6) gyr| roc} mj vi} m| NC
MAA ath focus kor ia eeieca 6-7) 4-5) ye ro} mj vl} mk) NY
MRO rastiesss Sie vie weer | 6-7| 6-8) gyr rc} mj yj m Pa
Northwestern Greening....| 8-9 6 gy re} m| J} km| Wis
Pallawater. <i: actives ee v= 9-10 6 yer, rc} m | m Pa
an Orminees tetanus. tees | §-9] 3-4] yr| tr} mal m| k) Mass
Feat) Penetan 6 eect geen ves 5-6 3-40 yr cic] m{ m!} mm; Conn
PaMmengse i.e ecac hectaans: d-6 8-9 yrs! ro} m om dm Fr
PAQUY si crs fd ctanswsaeccees | ToS] DO), TSl) roel Mm} 6 m Pa
Golden Russet............. 4-6 5-6 yru ro) m) vl) dm} Eng
BLOWN Ls on Stagg eee a | 7-8} 5-6! yr] roc m) } km| Mass
WietiphermMer: ano sccecs sss 8-10) 4. wer} oc} m}em m) Ger
Tweney Ounce Sides: 55 sa. 9-10 6-7) yrs! r} mami km) Conn
NV STEIN nc iigg. sexoetn ofaok ate 6-7| 6-7) yrs ro) m) om) dkmj| Minn
WORESISEVED 5 5:8 ns sont tut 2 9-10) 5-6 wrs) ro| mj} m)> km} Wis
Yellow Transparent. | 6-7] 5-6) wy] rc} ale} km] Rus
PEARS.
| ty |
ha | = me |
wa )<] 3 ea |elal Sie] 2S
a2 ce) So) Rl al} | @ me
n | Oy} oO eS Pe |e jo | 2 | ©
PATOL Kacasjershers wiatete wears 7-8 8-9| gre| obtp| m) vp, m| idm Fr
WUChESSHancescsk se. .../9-10| 5-9) gyr} obov| blov m) /dm Fr
Bamtl@tt tone tans ettacw eas 7-8) 6-8) yrur ob| bt jap, Im dm! Eng
INOS Ceili elem a,oaiuiatsrs-eteie 8-9) 8-9) yrur p mb} p m m) Belg
CIA ME AM Neel nc sme citae 7-8) 4-5 yc bg! jsp| 1 m Fr
Clapp Favorite....:... 7-8) 5-6 yc ob| bm| jsv| em) m; Mass
Dayenne dus. csscpanns 8-9} 8-9 ye| rp} mb| jsb ml) dm Fr
Manas Haver: cccns wk 3-4/9-10) -yru ob] mj) jsp l| d) Mass
PB GUERC er citi he ate gs 7-8) 5-6) ygru ro| bm) js | m Fr
Flemish Beauty....... 8-9) 6-7) yrur ob] m) jsp} em) dm| Mass
MGAOTC csc eee se css 5-6) 7-8) “gyr) p| m jvp 1 od) Fbm
Gray Dayennes. <.5...: 5-6| 8-9 ru) ov} bmryrich, m| d Fr
Uva Oi cegreeiscsctels fea 2s 8-9 8-9) yru} ob} m)> sv} m= dm Idaho
NEHER: aclatiiee ste civetouie 7-9 8-5) yru, ob) m| jsp) ed) Ohio
WEAWTEN CC. csc de.bes soe 5-6) 7-8) yrul ob) m! sp 1}dm| NY
Josephine de..........:. 5-6) 7-8| gyr| ro| m| jsp 1 dm} Belg
COR ete Mein aide eateries 3-49-10' lgrur| ob] bm) jp} ml) dj — Pa
ShHeldania:c... «2 sens 6-8 7-8 gy ro} mj jsp} ml dm) NY
White Dayenne........ 5-6 8-10 yr, ob) bm) jsvj ml) dm Fr
Wo detieetss Seanasanc a 4-5) 7-8 yr ob} t| sv] e,dm| NY
Winter Nelis .......... 5-6) 8-9 yg ro| bm! jsp 1 dm| Belg
NECTARINES AND PEACHES. (Persica vulgaris.)
NECTARINES. (P. Vulgaris var. Levis.)
[Kry.—SI1ZE, scale 1 to 10: 1, very small; 10, very large. Form:
c, compressed; o, oblate; ov, oval; r, round. COLOR: c, creamy; g,
green; r, red; w. white; v, yellow. ADHESION: c, cling; f, free;
s, semicling. QUALITY, scale 1 to 10: 1, very poor; 10, best. SEASON:
e, early; m, medium; |, late; v, very. Use: d, dessert; k, kitchen;
m, market. Abbreviations of names of places of origin: Am., Amer-
ica Belg., Belgium; Eng., England; Eur., Enrope; Fr., France. ]
| | Coror| 2
Pall ec a .
PEACHES. eee :
|} @]< z rea) = faa] a eal —
;N | P| elHx lal} o} ai!) 2] -
In|A;n|Rl/al/ailnje] o
Early Crawford............ 8-9| 8-9 yr, y| f/rov) midm| NJ
SM Grhesrcte sets a cues H15 or 8-9] 7-8] yr] y f| rc} ml} m| Ga
CHAMPION .cew. oer ves ace 7-8| 7-8] cr} w {|r| em| dm Ill
(HOGER aca P eee ase s:| 8-9| 7-8, yr) y) f rov; m| m Ra
MIOSUCT aaa cei ora gers eee 9-10 9-10. yr| yl f rm) dm| Mass
Wheatland...............- 9-10) 6- “| yr} sy f, r| m/dm| NY
Susquehanna.............. 9-10 9- 10) yr) y; f; xr) m| dk Pa
lean Glin Gece an csvas< anise | 8-9 9- 10) wr} wj) c|rov) vilkm| Md
Late Crawford ........... | $9 8-9! yr} yl! f r I!dm| Am
Lenion ‘Cling... 2... we eee. | 8-9} 8-9 yrysy c 1ov! mldm| SC
Lemon Free.............. 8-9} 8-9] “y| y| fl obl dm} Ohio
SUUMD Deena leaf ares acct: 8-967) wr ow f/rov, ml} m| NY
Sneed..... ‘eee ren err | 6-7| 4-5| gw] w) cj ov| ve] m| Tenn
PATE ANI Orig slats ats /rs's.00 5-6) 5-6} wr} cw) s| r, ve} dm Ill
POSH Y sia seas Here ts | 6-7| 7-8| yri y fi ri! m] m!| Mass
34 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
CHERRIES. (Cerasus.)
HEARTS AND BIGARREAUS. (C. Avium.)
[KEY.—SIZE, scale 1 to 10: 1, very small; 10, very large. Form:
c, compressed; h, heart shaped; o, oblate; r, round. CoLor: a, amber:
b, black; p, purple; r, red; y, vellow. QuALITY, scale 1 to 10: 1, very
poor: 10, best. SEASON: e, early; m, medium; 1, late; v, very. USE:
d, dessert; k, kitchen; m, market. Abbreviations of names of places
of origin: Am., America; Eng., England; Eur., Europe; Fr., France;
Ger., Germany; Ont., Ontario; Rus., Russia. ]
le] |
Ps /e2le/8 z
=| 2 | 9 ele#isié
;w — O ~ op) ~
13h); eee eee re er ee eee | 7-8 8-9} bj.... I}dm| Ore
PBC ECA iy cas) oihceueie Nomeeanee 6-7 5-7, ~b) he; ve} dmj Eur
WOE CTTANSDALCH bivunissscaneaaie kes 5-6; 10) yr} r| e] djConn
Gentennialisneatrsessisbasnavraccts 9-10) 8-9} yr] ohj..../dm]} Cal
WOWHEG ss, kerb escadar tig bentmoweres | 5-6, 8-9 “t| rh) m{ dm| Mass
Bagle Blacky,..«-~ ..s<mciceceweseesee! Onl| O-7| b) oh) an) dim) Rng
Early Purple Guigne............... | 8-4! 6-7; pb} rh) ve F Al eitenien
EVEMOS sta akedes 1mait guise Agee tas |} 8-9) 7-8) b) h{| I) dmj......
Hips ectciie cake as 8-9) ; 9 yr hej dm) Eng
FIGS RING i .2osnesc cba nuthes casieatne ad 19-10) 7-8) prj rh) Im/dm| Ore
BebiPht GL ANlys xeadaivenccs ae-o% cede 2 | 8-9! 7-8 » oh e| d| Eng
ig isberts peas. o vases or veseeeeeses- {9-10} 8-9} pr} h)> mill dm] Ore
TiewWellias vanceves heeds ocetsnday 8-9 9 “bl rh..../dm] Ore
NL OREl pcvviee anos 55 2 enn aids ear 9-10) 7-8} rb! oh) m| d| Eur
Napoleon (Royal Ann).............| 8-9! 5-6) yr) h > m a Eur
CORDES aio bey ts tea pies seen 7-8) 5-6} | oh} m|/dmil......
Black Republicans. s<-..--2.s5-¢- 4. sce!) eee fae) Ie vli din} Ore
FEGCKON usc rae fxs ca iaveewes sd os 8-9 8-9) ra. oh =m) dm) Ohio
Wéellow Spanisnss ¢svcenyieas secu j9-10/9-10| yr) oh} em} dm] Eur
Black Tactarindin:<si2hsiivae cass 9-10 9-10) bh em} dmj| Kus
WiIntlSifactisitasevesssin tines cae] 87-8) yr) hi} I} dm} Ont
Governor Wood.. .... fags avtten 7-8 7-8 yr rh em’ dm! Ohio
‘*Heeling-in’’ a Tree.
After the selection of trees has been made
at the nursery, and the trees have been taken
home, the next step 1s to take proper care of
them until they are planted. Assoon as pos-
sible after the trees arrive at the farm they
should be ‘theeled-in.’’ This should be done
even though it is intended to plant’ them
almost immediately, for unexpected delays
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 35
often occur, and great damage may result if
the process is omitted. By “heeling-in’’ is
meant the protection of the fine roots so that
they shall not come in contact with the air.
Plow or dig a deep trench or furrow (a
double furrow would be best) in moist, light,
well-drained socil. Put the trees in singly,
side by side; be sure that all the packing
material is carefully taken away from the
roots. Lay the tops all the same way; then
cover well with loose soil, making sure that
the soil sifts down well between the roots to
exclude the air. Generally, this treatment
will keep the tree in good condition for some-
time if need be. If the trees have become
dry before arrival, the bundles should be
thoroughly drenched with water before they
are ‘‘heeled-in.’’ Ifthey seem to be very dry,
the tops appearing to be shriveled, the trees,
after being well drenched, should be buried
root and branch in the earth two or three days,
If the withering is not too far advanced, the
bark will regain its plumpness and smooth-
ness. It is seldom that trees are allowed to
get into such a condition by neglect.
A good safe guard against confusion by the
loss of labels is, when ‘‘heeling-1n,’’ to place —
each variety by itselfin the trench. Usually,
nursery-men fasten a label to each small
36 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
bundle naming the varieties, and the novice
is apt to lose track of the different kinds when
‘theeling’’ themin the trench, unless he puts
each by itself, and leaves the tag to mark
the lot of that variety.
Setting Out the Trees.
WHEN TO SET THEM OUT.
For two reasons the fall is the best time
for planting an orchard. In the first place,
the ground is in better condition during that
season; and in the second place, the orchard-
ist is likely to have imore leisure then and
can plant without feeling hurried.
If the planting is left until spring, the
late rains may keep the orchardist from
planting until the season is so far advanced
that the tree will not get a good start that
year.
HOW TO SET OUT THE TREES.
When the orchardist is actually ready to
set out his trees, he will find that the work
can be greatly facilitated by following one of
the plans given here.
Stretch a wire across the field where the
first row of trees is to be planted. On the
wire, at intervals of thirty feet, tie a narrow
strip of cloth,—a piece of red cheese-cloth will
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 27
be found most useful as its color will insure
its being easily discerned. Then make pegs
a foot long and having a thickness equal to
the circumference of the tree. Set a peg at
each place designated by the cloth. Now
remove the wire and stretch it again across
the field parallel with the first row and at a
distance of thirty feet. The whole field can
thus be laid off before digging the holes pre-
paratory to planting. Or, if it is preferred,
the first row of trees can be planted without
further delay.
Another and similar plan for laying off the
ground is as follows:
On the wire that was used in laying off
the first rows, tie a cloth of a different color
half way between the red strips, which will
make fifteen feet between the two. In this
way the wire will be stretched parallel across
the field every twenty-six feet, and your
trees will be just thirty feet apart, the stakes
in one row being tied with the red cloth,
and those in the other, with the contrasting
color.
DIGGING THE HOLES.
Take an inch board four inches wide and
five feet long, and bore an inch hole at each
end and also in the center. ‘Then saw outa
60 ep)?
V
on one side of the board to the center
38 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
hole. Now lay the board down so that the
peg fits into the center hole. Drive a peg
into the ground through the holes at each
end of the board. Remove the board and
the center peg. Dig a hole 2% or 3 feet
square where the peg was. When digging
the hole, throw the top dirt over to one side
of the hole, and the under dirt over to the
other side. Dig to a depth of two feet, and
then bore a hole five feet deep in the center.
By using giant powder at this point, the
hard pan that may be in the ground will be
broken up, a surplus of water around the
roots will be rendered impossible, and the
tap roots will be able to descend to greater
depths, in search of nourishment for the
EVES,
METHOD OF BLASTING WHERE THE TREE
IS TO BE SET.
Use two sticks of giant powder for each hole.
Drop one stick down in the hole. Loosen, at
one end, the paper around the other stick
ofdynamite. At this end, insert a sharp peg
the size of the cap to be used. Attach the
fuse to the cap, and place the cap in the end
of the powder. If there is water in the hole,
cover the cap with wagon-grease, then draw
the paper, and tie it around the fuse with a
(0 EE » seis | uaa,
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 39
string. Place this stick in the hole where the
first stick was dropped, leaving the fuse about
six feet long. The hole may be filled with
water, or fine earth, but must not be tamped.
Touch the match to the fuse. It is probably
superfluous to say that the operator should
immediately remove toa considerable distance
from the hole.
This method of digging the holes will of
course be an additional expense, but when it
is realized that a tree thus set out will grow
more in four years than another, carelessly
planted, will grow in six, it will be seen that
the time and money are well spent.
After the tree has been taken from the
ee)
place-where it was ‘‘heeled in,’’ it should be
set out at once while the earth, which has
been thrown out of the hole, is damp.
All broken cr bruised roots should be cut
off with a sharp knife. Place the board with
the pegs through the end holes. Set the
tree in the hole. Ifthe hole is found to be
too deep, fill in with some of the top soil.
ihe tree must now ft into»the ‘vy’ in the
center of the board. Place the tree in the
hole, and throw in a few shovels of fine top
soil. By grasping the tree firmly in the left
hand and setting it, by moving it gently up
and down a few times, and by working the
40 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
earth up under the center of the roots with
the fingers of the right hand, all large air-
spaces around the roots can be got rid of.
The place directly under the crown, where
the roots often form a sort of cone-shaped
cavity, needs special attention. A large air-
space here means severe drying. Be sure
that this point is well covered with earth.
The hole should then be filled, tamping well
after each shovel of dirt has been thrown in.
A tamper, shaped like a base ball bat, four
or five feet long, and about three inches thick
at the larger end, is excellent for this pur-
pose. The rounded end will not easily in-
jure the roots, and will be found small enough
to work among them readily. When the
hole is filled, a little loose dirt should be left
on top as a mulch to retain the moisture.
This should be piled 1% inches higher
than the surface of the ground.
It is not advisable te put manure in the
hole, as it will heat and cause the roots to
dry out, unless it is very well rotted. More-
over, it may introduce fungus spores, which
will prey on the roots, and it is also likely to
interfere seriously with the packing of the
earth around the roots. A mulch on the sur-
face made of manure or old straw is not so
objectionable, though anything piled around
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 41
the trunk of the tree will make the bark
more tender and more susceptible to injury
after the mulch is removed. Such a mulch
also tends to make the roots come close to
the surface, and these soon dry out, if the
mulch is not continually renewed or if it is
removed entirely.
Pruning.
THE FIRST YEAR.
The newly set tree, which, as was said be-
fore, should always be a yearling, must now
be pruned so that the top may correspond
with the roots. ‘This should be done at once.
If neglected, the tree will suffer. Cut the
tree off two and one-half feet tall making a
sloping cut just above the bud.
THE SECOND YEAR.
When the tree is two years old, numerous
small branches will have formed, and it will
require more attention as to pruning.
Select five limbs which are to be left on the
tree, the first being about one foot from the
ground, and the others to be five or six inches
apart on different sides of the tree. ‘These
limbs should be clipped one foot in length,
leaving the fifth on the side of the tree from
which the wind blows the most strougly,—it
42 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
will serve asa balance. All other branches
should be clipped off just at the edge of the
collar of the tree.
‘DEER. “PERRI i AGG
A third year tree will have small branches
on each of these five limbs. Clip off all but
two from each. The head of the tree is now
practically formed. The pruning of the
future has for its object the keeping of the
tree free, so that the sun may reach the fruit.
When pruning, cut the limb just inside the
collar, because a limb, if cut too close, will
leave a sunken place where insects may har-
bor. Ifcuttoo long, water sprouts will come.
A tree that is heavily laden must be pruned
inthesummer. Clip off half the growth that
the tree has made. ‘This should be done in
June or not later than July rsth. It checks
the growth of the tree and causes it to send
out fruit-buds for the next year. Limbs that
bend downward will be found to be greater
bearers than upright ones, because the sap in
a bent limb will flow more sluggishly, and the
growth instead of going entirely into a limb
will be diverted to the fruit-buds. The
straight limb will probably grow twice as
much but will not send out anything like
the number of fruit buds.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 43
Some varieties of apples will send out
fruit-buds on the first year’s growth; of these
the Winter Banana is an example.
Asarule, a limb will bear fruit the third
year-after its growth. The fruit-buds on an
apple tree are formed in July and August, so
that, in the fall, it may easily be determined
whether the tree will blossom or not in
the following spring.
Pear trees should be treated in much the
same manner as the apples.
The treatment of the peach does not vary
up to the end of the second year. As soon
as the peach begins to bear, clip off half of
the last year’s growth or even more from the
leaders. Form the tree into a goblet shape.
Do this every year. The present year’s
erowth of limb will bear next year but never
afterward. By pruning, new shoots. will
appear and a heavier crop of peaches will be
ensured. As peaches differ from apples in
one important particular in that they do not
need the sun, whereas apples do, it should be
borne in mind that peaches should be pro-
tected by heavier foliage. In order to accom-
plish this, refrain from clipping the small
branches that grow on the limbs. The best
peaches will be found growing close on the
44 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
limbs that are well screened by this young
foliage.
The prune and the plum require about the
same treatment as the peach.
THINNING OF THE FRUIT.
The thinning of fruit is necessary for sev-
eral reasons. It makes the fruit much larger
aud finer, and, what is of far more import-
auce, it ensures the bearing of fruit on the
tree for the following year; because any tree,
if overloaded in one season, will bear scantily,
if at all, the following season.
PEACH.
In the case of the peach tree, it is a singu-
lar fact that the limb which bears fruit one
season will not bear again. Hach year new
twigs are formed. From this fact, it may be
seen that all the nourishment of the tree in
one season must not be given to fruit, but
some of it must be allowed to develop new
branches which will be fruit-producing the
next year.
Ona peach tree from five to seven years
old, whose peaches will weigh two or three
to a pound, only such a number should be
left as would fill eight or ten ordinary com-
mercial peach-boxes. (‘These contain from
forty to fifty of the size mentioned.) Fifteen
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 45
such boxes represent the maximuim bearing
amount to be allowed on a tree from seven
to ten years old. In order to make this esti-
mate, count the number of peaches on one-
fourth of the tree. After thinning them out,
there should remain between eighty and one
hundred peaches, or about two boxes.
In thinning, the larger number should be
left near the main trunk of the tree, as the
peaches grow larger at this point and are of
better quality where they are protected by
the leaves. In thinning peaches, it is well
to follow the practice of leaving the fruit at
intervals of from eight to ten inches. ‘The
distance will depend somewhat on the size of
the limb.
APPLE.
The thinning of the apple should be done
from the first to the fifteenth of July. At
this time the large majority of the codling-
moth worms are in the apple, and all wormy
apples should be picked and put into a_bas-
ket. These apples should be given at once
to the hogs, or should be put into a barrel
containiug water. Into this barrel should be
poured one pint of poison spray mixture and
a quart of ‘‘Black Jack Oil.’’ This will
destroy all the worms in the apples. If the
tree has no wormy apples, thinning should
46 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
be done by leaving one apple on each spur.
If the tree is even then too heavily loaded,
take off more. ‘The necessity of this is made
clear when one looks ahead to the next year’s
crop. Ifit bears too much, the tree will not
have vitality enough to mature the fruit, or
to change the leaf-bud toa fruit-bud. Ifa
second thinning of the apple is made, it
should be done about the tenth of August, as
the second brood of codling-moth worms will
be caught at this time. This date varies
somewhat in different localities.
Gathering the Fruit.
GATHEHRING THE APPLE.
An apple intended for long keeping must
be picked early. The Jonathan and most
other varieties should be picked for shipping
when the seed commences to blacken, and
when the fruit yields to pressure. If left on
until fully ripe and until the seeds are all
black, the fruit will not keep. This applies
to home storage as well as to shipment.
The apples should be carefully hand-picked
into baskets. If to be stored, they should be
placed carefully in apple boxes, not packed
tight as for shipment. These boxes should
be transferred to fruit-houses with as little jar
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 47
as possible. If apples are to be shipped a
great distance, a layer of pasteboard should
be placed between every two layers of apples,
in packing. (Hood River packers use this
method.) ‘This would require the choosing
of apples of uniform size.
Apples should be side-packed. ‘That is to
say, they should be packed with the sides,
and not the ends, up. The box will be fuller
when it reaches its destination, and the fruit
will bein bettercondition. Leave the stems on.
GATHERING THE PEAR.
Stems must always be left on.
Each pear must be wrapped separately in
paper.
Time for picking: The pear is ready to
be gathered when the seed begins to turn
black. Anothersuccessful way of determining
its readiness for shipment is to let the pear,
as it hangs on the tree, rest in the palin of
the hand. If, when the hand moves gently °
back and forth, the pear detaches itself from
aie (tec inasteady to.be pickéd. ‘Tis test
should, of course, be applied to a number of
pears. before a decision is reached. Pears
should never be allowed to ripen on the tree.
The flavor of a pear (as is not the case with
most other fruits) is improved by early picking
48 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
aud by being stored away in a cool dark
_place to complete its ripening.
HOW TO PACK PEARS.
The first row of pears (usually consisting
of four, sometimes more if the fruit is small)
is packed with the butts of the fruit toward
the end of the box. The second layer (which
always contains one less pear than the first) is
placed with the stem-ends between the pears in
the firstrow. Allsucceeding rows are packed
in the same relative position as the second.
The third row has as many pears as the first;
the fourth as many as the second, and so on.
No interlayer of cardboard is used in pack-
ing pears as in packing apples.
In the second layer, the pears in the first
row are placed with their butts in the hollows
left by the stem-ends of the first row in the
layer below. ‘There will always be one less
pear in the first row of the second layer than
.in the first row of the first layer. When the
box is full the pears should stand higher than
the sides of the box; for fruit should fit so
tightly into a box that it will not shake about
aud bruise badly in shipping.
GATHERING THE PEACH.
Peaches intended for shipment should be
picked before dead ripe. ‘They should be
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 49
wrapped in two or three thicknesses of paper.
The stem of the peach is removed. The box
ordinarily contains two layers. It should
have all small spaces filled with paper se
that the fruit may fit very snugly.
GATHERING THE PRUNE.
The prune (Italian or Dawson) should
never be picked until it has turned blue all
over. The ripeness of the prune may be
tested upon breaking it open. The sugary
appearance of the meat and its sweet odor
are the assurances that it is ready to be
picked. Stems should always be left on.
In the prune basket (of which there are
usually four to the crate) there are three lay-
ers, a piece of prune paper lying between
every two layers. ‘The largest prunes are
saved for the top layer.
Prunes intended for evaporation should
never be plucked. ‘They must be left on the
tree until they ripen fully and drop to the
ground of their own accord. They will then
have much more sugar. Evaporated prunes
(both Italian and French) should be put into
small paper boxes containing from one to
ten pounds each. ‘This method of packing
would be of great advantage to the merchant
who sells the prune, and the fruit itself
50 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
would be much better and cleaner. If pre-
pared for sale in very small quantities, prunes
eould be disposed of in large amounts to
travelers on the train, for many persons who
now buy figs would gladly purchase prunes
instead.
irrigating the Orchard.
It would be difficult to state definitely at
just what time to begin irrigating the orchard,
because seasons vary so widely. In general
itis best to wait until the trees are in blossom
‘in the spring before irrigating at all. But if
the spring rains have been infrequent and
have ceased early, so that the ground has
become dry, it is best to water the orchard
even before the blossoms appear. When irri-
gation is once begun, the grotnd should be
kept very moist (and I even advocate frequent
flooding) until all danger of frost to the trees
is passed. On any night which threatens a
heavy frost, turn the water into all the irri-
gating ditches and see that the ground is
flooded. ‘This will be found an almost infal-
lible protection against loss by freezing.
Frequency of irrigation depends very largely
upon how the land lies and upon its peculiar
characteristics. In general once every three
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 51
weeks should be sufficient. But if the land
is very porous and has a decided slope, it will
be found necessary to water it oftener.
The question is often asked whether or no
an orchard should be flooded. It is main-
tained by some high authorities that flooding
would cause the ground to bake. This might
be the case where the orchard is cultivated
by theclean-culture method. Butin the case
of cover-crop culture, it would not. In the
later case, flooding, while not absolutely
necessary to provide moisture for the growth
of the tree, is yet invaluable as a protection
of the crops against frost.
Irrigation should continue throughout the
summer and into September. In case the
tree is allowed to get too dry in the summer
its growth willcease. Later in the fall when
the rains come and while the weather is still
warm, the tree will make a new start. This
second growth is injurious to the tree, for
freezing weather is likely to come on while 1
is in progress, and the death of the tree will
result. This is more fully discussed else-
where.
Smudge.
If the orchard is cultivated by clean-culture
instead of by cover-crop culture, the best pre-
52 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
ventative of frost is not water but a smudge.
In California the process of smudging is much
more expensive and elaborate than that
followed here. The plan usually adopted in
this section is to distribute old hay and
manure throughout the orchard and around
all sides of it. The complete surrounding of
the orchard is desirable because protection
may thus be secured against a cold wind
blowing from any direction. When the mer-
cury begins to drop dangerously near the
freezing point, the smudges should be lighted.
The cloud of smoke permeating every corner
of the orchard raises the temperature several
degrees, and has in many cases saved fruit
from total loss.
If the orchard is flooded, smudges will
probably be superfluous. The presence of
water (whether running or still) should bea
sufficient protection.
Grafting and Budding.
It is desirable that every orchardist should
understand propagation of trees. Often a
poor selection of varieties are made, and it is
advantageous to know how to make over
an orchard ofan undesirable variety into trees
that bear finely flavored, healthy fruit.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 53
There are two kinds of propagation, graft-
ing and budding. In grafting, we have two
methods technically known as whip-grafting
and cleft-grafting.
Bulletins on this subject issued by the
Department of Agriculture at Washington
have been very freely used in presenting the
following facts, especially Bulletin No. 113.
WHIP-GRAFTING.
This style of grafting is the one almost
Proctor
Fig. 2.—Successive steps of whip-grafting; @, splice-graft;
6, tongue-graft, parts separate; c, tongue-graft, parts
united; d, waxed wrapper applied.
54 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE
universally used in root grafting. It has tlre
advantage of being well adapted to smal}
plants, only one or two years of age, as well
as the fact that it can be done indoors during
the comparative leisure of winter. The graft
is made by eutting the stalk off diagonally,
—one long smooth cut with a sharp knife,
leaving about three-fourths of an inch cut
surface, as shown in figure ‘‘a.”? Place the
knife about one-third of the distance from the
end of the cut surface at right angles to the
eut, and split the stalk in the direction of its
long axis.
Cut the lower end of the scion in like man-
ner (Figure ‘‘4’”) and when the two parts are
forced together, as shown in Figure ‘‘e’’
the cut surfaces will fit neatly together,
and one will nearly cover the other, if the
scion and the stalk are of the same size. A
difference in diameter of the two parts to be
united may be disregarded unless it be too
great. After the scion and stalk have been
locked together (Figure ‘‘d’’) they should be
wrapped with five or six turns of waxed cot-
ton to hold the parts firmly together. While
the top-grafting may be done in this way, it
is 11 root-grafting that the whip-graft finds
its distinctive field. Sometimes the entire
root is used. The roots are dug, and the
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 55
scions are cut in the fall and stored. The
work of grafting may be done during the
winter months. When the operation has
been performed, the grafts are packed away
in moss, sawdust, er sand, in a cool cellar, te
remain until spring. Itis important that the
place of storage should be cool, or the grafts
may Start into life, and be ruined; or else
heating and rotting may occur. If the tem-
perature is kept low (not above 40 degrees)
there will be no growth except callusing and
the knitting of the stalk and the scion.
In ordinary propagation by means of whip-
grafts, the scion is cut with about three buds,
and the stalk is nearly as long as the scion.
The graft is so planned as to bring the union
of the stalk and scion not very far below the
surface of the ground; but where the trees are
required to be especially hardy in order to
stand the hard winters, and the roots used
are not known to be so hardy as the plants
from which the scions arecut, a different plan
is adopted. The scions are then cut much
longer, and the roots may be cut shorter; and
the graft is planted so deep as to cause roots
to issue from the lower end of the scion.
When taken up to be set in an orchard, the
original root may be removed entirely, leaving
56 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
nothing but the scion and the roots whicls
have put forth from it.
CLEFT-GRAFTING.
This style of grafting is particularly well
adapted to a large tree. Branches too large
to be worked by other methods, can be cleft-
grafted. A branch one inch or an ich and
a half in diameter (a limb more than two and
iH
cat}
t fl
aan |
i
Mg]
|
an ARE
H
|
: i
|
i
i
Fig. 3.—Cleft-grafting; @, scion; 0, scions
inserted in cleft.
one-half inches should never be grafted) is
severed with a saw. Care should be taken
that the bark be not loosened from any por-
[2
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 57
tion of the stubs. Split the exposed end
with a broad thin chisel, or grafting tool.
Then with a wedge or with the wedge-shaped
prong at the end of the grafting tool, spread
Fig. 4.—Grafting Tool.
the cleft so that the scions may be inserted.
The scion should consist of a portion of
the previous season’s growth, and it should
be long enough to have two or three buds.
The lower part of the scion, which is to be
inserted into the cleft should be cut into the
shape of a wedge having the outer edge
thicker than the other. In general} it isra
good plan to cut the scion so that the lowest
bud will come just at the top of this wedge
so that it will be near the top of the stalk.
The advantage of cutting the wedge thicker
on one side is illustrated in figure 3, which
58 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
shows how the pressure of the stalk is
brought upon the outer growing parts of both
scion and stalk; whereas, where the scion is
thicker on the inner side, the condition would
be reversed, and the death of the scion would
follow. ‘The importance of having an inti-
mate connection between the growing tissues
sannot be too strongly emphasized, for, upon
this alone, depends the success of the grafting.
To make this contact of the growing portions
doubly certain, the scion is often set at a
shght angle with the stalk into which it is
inserted in order to cause the growing por-
tions of the two to cross. After the scions
have been set, the operation of cleft-grafting
e all cut surfaces
with a layer of grafting wax.
is completed by coverin
The scions should be gathered in the fall.
Clip off all the best and thriftiest shoots of
the present season’s growth (not water-
sprouts). Each variety should be tied ina
bundle by itself and labeled so that no con-
fusion may result the next season. The
clipped ends of the branches should then be
buried from six to eight inches deep in a box
of moist soil and placed in a cool cellar.
Here they remain dormant until the next
spring, which is the proper time for cleft-
grafting.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 59
THE COST OF CLEFT-GRAFTING.
Experienced grafters charge two cents a
scion. When the charge is three cents, they
guarantee the growth of all the scions, the
latter to be counted the following fall. Thus
the price of working over the top of a tree
would range from twenty-five to fifty cents.
The new top of a tree thus cleft-grafted will
reach the size of the original top in three
years and will be bearing fruit. This shows
the advantage of cleft-grafting over the re-
moval of an unsatisfactory tree and the re-
placing of it with a young one of a different
variety.
BUDDING.
There are numerous styles of budding. It
is the most economical form of reproduction,
and each year witnesses its more general use.
Some nursery-men have even gone so far
as to use it as a substitute for all modes of
grafting except whip-grafting in propagation
of the dwarf-pear. It requires less wood from
which to take buds. A single bud does
the work of three or more upon the scion
used in grafting; but, while it is economical
of wood, it is expensive in the use of stocks,
—a seedling being required for each tree,—
while with the piece-root system of grafting,
60 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
two, three, or more stalks can be made from
a single seedling.
The operation of budding is simple and can
be done with great speed by expert budders.
The expense, therefore, is not more than that
of whip-grafting, although it has the incon-
venience of having to be done during the
busiest season, that is to say, in the months
of July, August, and early September. ‘The
usual plan fora man is to set the buds, and for
a boy to follow closely and do the tying.
THE BUD.
The bud should be taken from the wood
of the present season’s growth. Since the
work of budding is done during the season of
active growth, the bud-sticks are prepared so
that the petiole, or stem, of each leaf is left
attached to serveasa handle to aid in pushing
the bud home when inserting it beneath the
bark of the stock. ‘This is what is usually
calleda shield-bud, and it issocut that a small
portion of the woody tissue of the branch is
removed with the bud,
THE WS TOK:
The stock for budding should be at least as
thick as the ordinary lead pencil. In the case
of the apple and the pear, a second season’s
growth will be necessary to develop this size;
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 61
while, with the peach, a single season will
suffice. Hence, peach-stocks can be budded
tie Same season the pits are planted. For
this reason, the peach is left until as late in
the season as is practicable in order to obtain
stocks of suitable size.
THE OPERATION.
Nursery Budding: ‘fhe height at which
buds are inserted varies with the tree. In
general, the nearer the ground the better.
The cut for the reception of the bud is made
in the shape of the letter ‘‘T.’’ Usually the
cross-cut 1s not quite at right angles with the
body ot the tree, and the stem to the °°”
starts at the cross-cut, and extends toward
the roots for an inch or more. ‘The flaps of
bark caused by the intersection of the two
cuts are slightly loosened with the ivory heel
of the budding knife; and the bud, grasped
by the leaf-stem as a handle, is placed under
the flaps and firmly pushed into place. Its
surface is entirely in contact with the peeled
body of the stock. A ligature is then tightly
drawn about, above, and below the bud to
hold it in place until a union shall be formed.
Bands of raffia about eight or ten inches long
make a most convenient tying material. As
soon as the buds have united with the stock
62 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
(which will occur in about twenty days) the
ligature should be cut in order to prevent
girdling of the stock. This done, the opera-
tion is complete until the following spring,
when all the trees in which the buds have
“taken”? should have the top cut off about
half an inch above the bud.
BUDDING IN THE ORCHARD.
In order to bud in the orchard, remove the
top of the tree in the spring. The tree will
then begin to send out from its top numerous
small shoots. Budas many of these shoots
as will give the tree a good balance. This
should be done in July, August, or Septem-
ber of the same season in which the tops
have been removed.
‘he operation of budding in the orchard is
performed in exactly the same manner as in
the nursery. Immediately after the buds
are set on a limb its top should be broken off
entirely or should be twisted sharply and
left hanging down until the next season.
This would check the growth of the limb,
and all the nourishment will thus go into
the bud instead of into elongating the limb.
The following spring the limb should be
clipped with a sloping cut half an inch above
the bud. If the limb does not heal over per-
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 63
fectly, it should be clipped again, this time
closer to the bud.
BUDDING THE MARY ANN PLUM.
This is a plum that never sprouts from the
roots. But if the top limbs of the tree are
bent over and laid eight inches under the
ground, each limb will take root. After they
have taken root budding can be performed
the same season. This will be a gain to the
orchard of exactly one year over the method
of planting the pit.
The Diseased Tree.
HOW TO TAKE CARE OF IT.
It is a regrettable fact that orchards in this
part of the country, and, indeed, all over the
United States, are in such a condition that
any pamphlet treating of tree-culture will be
found chiefly valuable in its discussion of
diseases of the tree. Every orchardist is con-
fronted year after year with the serious prob-
lem of ridding his trees of various pests if he
does not want to see them die before his
eyes, or at least cease to be profitable pro-
ducers.
Observation and experiment have not as
yet by any means reached the goal; but they
are inaking excellent progress toward it.
64 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
‘The present writer aims to describe the
diseases that have come under his notice and
that have been studied by him; and to offer
explicit directions concerning their diagnosis
and treatment. ‘The formulas and sugges-
tions offered have all been successfully tested.
THE SPRAYING OF TREES AND
SHRUBBERY.
‘oo much prominence cannot be given to
the matter of spraying. ‘The subject is one
of which every orchardist must make himself
master if he would be successful. It is the
purpose of the present article to explain as
carefully as possible, of just what benefit
spraying may be, at which seasons of the
year it should be done, how to make the
spray, and how to apply it.
BENEFITS OF SPRAYING.
The spraying of trees has passed the ex-
perimental stage. Its value has been uni-
versally demonstrated. It is now recognized
everywhere as a most efficacious means of
treating insect-pests. It will protect a tree
from a new invasion of disease, and will
check and utterly rout the progress of any
already infesting the tree. The spray covers
up cracks and wounds made by insects and
keeps out parasitic fungi trying to gain en-
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 65
trance to the cambium layer or inner-grow-
ing tissue. The rough bark, which is likely
to harbor many enemies (especially the cod-
ling moth) drops off, leaving the new bark
perfectly smooth. In this, the :nsects can
not take refuge. They remain on the ground
instead of making their homes in the trees,
and eventually many of them are destroyed
by irrigation.
In the case of trees already diseased, it has
been conclusively shown that spraying is the
only means of curing or even of saving the
tree, It, for example, a tree attacked by the
San Jose scale is left unsprayed, it will cer-
tainly die in two or three years. Aphis or
slugs, by destroying the foliage or lungs of a
tree, so check its growth that in a year or so
it will cease to bear fruit. Spraying is the
only sure remedy for this condition. The
eggs laid by the codling-moth miller on fol-
lage or fruit can be destroyed only by a pois-
onous spray, which both keeps the fruit from
falling and also makes it larger and of better
quality. Diseased rose-bushes or other flow-
ering plants unless well sprayed will soon lose
the beauty both of leaf and blossom. From
these examples, it may be seen how incalcu-
lable are the benefits of the process. In
short, there is no insect-pest found in this
66 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
region that cannot be coped with by an in-
telligent use of the proper spray.
WHEN TO SPRAY.
To secure the best results one should know
just when to spray. Ifit is not done at the
proper season it is of no avail. ‘To be effect-
ive, the time of spraying should be carefilly
determined by the condition of the plant and
by the sort of disease which has attacked it.
If the spray is intended as a preventative of
fungus disease, it should be applied early in
the spring before the foliage starts. ‘This,
too, is the time to treat San Jose scale, aphis,
aud red spider eggs. If, however, the spray-
ing is for insects that live on the fruit and
foliage, it should be done at intervals through-
out the summer.
For codling-moth it should be done several
times; the first time, as soon as the petals
fall and before the calyx closes, since some
varieties blossom for a period of three weeks;
the second time, three weeks later, so that
the poison may reach into the calyx of the
last blossoms. After this it should be done
every three weeks for seven times. (As
some varieties of apples, however, ripen be-
fore this period, it will not be necessary to
carry out in their case the entire series. )
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 67
Spraying for slugs should be done two
weeks after the eggs are laid on the leaf of
the tree. Aphis should be treated as soon as
detected. An earnest orchardist will, of
course, familiarize himself with the appear-
auce of all these pests so that he may recog-
nize them at every stage of their develop-
ment. -After he has once detected the
symptoms of the disease, and has diagnosed
the case, he should be very careful to heed
the suggestions concerning the proper season
for spraying. Vigilance throughout an en-
tire season is the price to be paid for healthy
trees and shrubbery, and those who have
neglected their orchards as the season ad-
vanced have done so at their cost.
HOW TO SPRAY.
But it is not enough to appreciate the value
of spraying or to be conversant with the
periods at which the treatment.can be most
effectively given. One must, aboveall things,
know how to make the sprays; what ones to
use 11 a given case; and how to apply them.
These points, in fact, are the secret of the
whole process. And it is just here, unfortu-
nately, that orchardists make serious blunders.
Either they do not know how to cook their
sprays or they do not know how to apply it.
68 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
Whatever failures have occurred,—and they
have been both numerous and costly,—they
are all, I firmly believe, to be traced to mis:
taken methods of preparing the material and
to injudicious methods of using it. Ignorance
on these points have cost individuals in this
state thousands of dollars. ‘The San Jose
scale, for instance, has been the source of a
great outlay on the part of orchardists, and
yet it is gradually increasing. ‘This dis-
couraging fact is due in great part to the
improper mixing and cooking of ingredi-
ents. If the suggestions offered here are
conscientiously followed, I believe that suc-
cess will be assured. For all eating insects
such as slugs, codling-moth, and peach-twig-
borer, use poison,—arsenic of soda, or arsenic
of lead being preferred. All sucking insects,
as scale and aphis, should be killed by con-
tact,—that is to say, by applying the spray
directly to the insect. For this purpose, use
lime, sulphur, and salt prepared as directed
below, in the spring, but in the summer use
whale oil soap and kerosene. For fungus
diseases, use lime, sulphur, and salt in the
spring and copper sulphate and lime in the
sumimer. For detailed treatment consult
Formulas I and II.
FoRMULA I. To be used in the spring:
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 6g
malt, 2u lbs; Sulpliur, 35, lbs.;. Lime, yo
lbs.; Water, 100 gals.
Put 60 lbs. of lime and 35 lbs. of sulphur
in a barrel. Then pour in hot water just
enough at a time to keep it from boiling over
untilthe limeisslaked. Stir until thoroughly
mixed. Coverthebarrel. ‘Thismixturemay
stand from one to six hours and sometimes even
twelve hours. It will usually be found most
convenient to slake the lime and sulphur the
evening before the spray is to be cooked. In
the morning pour the mixture into a tank
(capacity 100 gallons) which contains xot over
three inches of water. Boil thoroughly for one
hour anda half. ‘lake ro lbs. of lime and 20
ibs. of salt and slake in a barrel while the
other ingredients are cooking. After the first
part has cooked one hour and a half, pour into
it the slakened lime and salt, and cook an-
other half-hour. Then add enough boiling
water from a second tank to make when
mixed roo gallons. It is now ready for use
aud should be hot so that the full benefit of
the sulphur may be had.
The great temptation in the making up of
this and ether formulas seems to be the use of
too much water. Ifa greater quantity of
water is used than I have indicated above,
the entire effect of the sulphur and lime, is
70 THE FRUIT GROWER’'S GUIDE
lost. Again, many formulas (especially one
from Ohio) do not give sufficient time to cook
the materials properly so that the sulphur is
used before thoroughly dissolved, in which
condition it is simply clear waste. In the
powdered fori the sulpltur is of no use what-
ever. I have tried as many as twenty form-
ulas and find that in every case if too much
water is used, some insects will not be affected
at all; whereas if the receipt which I have
given is exactly followed, all pests will be
killed.
FORMULA II.—For any insect to be killed
by contact.
Dissolve one pound of whale-oil soap in a
gallon of water. Remove from the fire and
add two gallons ef kerosene, and churn until
it forims a perfect emulsion. It will then be
a creamy substance. Tlus should then be
diluted, the proportions of water varying
with the kind of plant it is intended for.
For apples, pears, and prunes, use 9 gallons
of water to one of the mixture. For peaches
or rose-bushes, use one gallon of the mixture
to 15 of water.
FORMULA III.—For fungus diseases to be
used in the summer:
Dissolve six lbs. of copper suiphate (blue
stone) int hot water, using a wooden vessel
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 71
So as to prevent corrosion of metal. Add
four lbs. of slaked lime with the copper sul-
phate, and mix well with 45 gallons of water.
Then strain through a screen into the spray-
ing barrel, and keep thoroughly stirred while
spraying.
FORMULA IV.——-Spray for eating-insects:
Mix 1 lb. of arsenic and 4 lbs. of sal soda
in r gallon of water. Boil 20 minutes, or
until dissolved. Use r pint of liquid to 50
gallons of water, and add 3 lbs. of slacked
lime.
HOW TO APPLY THE SPRAY.
3e sure that it is properly applied to the
tree or shrub. ‘The correct way is to begin
at the top. Spray through the tree from
every direction until every limb and twig is
completely covered. Otherwise an insect
will still live. When the branches are well
coated with the calcium sulphide, the air is
excluded, and the scale dies. When spray-
ing for aphis, codling-moth, or slugs, cover
every leaf on the tree. Otherwise the insect
has a chance to keep on working. All too
frequently the foliage is not really covered,
and the codling-moth continues its raids.
SPRAYING PUMP AND FIXTURES.
One should have a pump witha guage and
oD oD
74 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
keep a pressure of from 100 to 150 pounds.
The hose for eacl nozzle should be 50 feet
long. ‘The rod should be to feet long with
a bamboo pole over it so that the hand will
not be burned when spraying with the warm
material. A lobe-valve should be attached
to the rod near the hose. The best nozzle I
know of is the San Jose nozzle. It will last
one season and is easily regulated.
As to pumps, there are a great many
kinds; some of them excellent, and many of
thei (and some of those are the most expen-
sive) of little or no account. Itis, of course,
the part of economy and wisdom to get a
good pump. I should recommend the Stahl
pump. Or the Fairbanks-Morse pump.
FUMIGATION.
(The following interesting account of fumigation was
contributed by Mr. J. M. Campbell. )
The formula used in fumigating is as fol-
lows:
I qt. water, 15 liquid ozs. sulphuric acid,
15 ozs. bicarbonate of potassium, C. P. These
ingredients should be put into an earthen
vessel.
In the first place one should have an air-
tight house or one as nearly so as possible.
The trees should be dried off so that there
will be no water or moisture on the surface,
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 73
for water will absorb the sulphuric acid and
burn. the: tree.
Trees should be left in the house about
forty minutes. If the weather is calm, I
think the work can be done in less time than
when the wind is blowing. It will not hurt
the trees to leave them in the gas fifty min-
utes if they are in proper condition. ‘Trees
infested with San Jose scale, green apliis,
and wooly aphis were fumigated and after-
wards examined by Mr. Alex. McPherson,
State Inspector, and he said he could not find
life in either case. It is better to fumigate
stock before it leaves out as the leaves will
be wilted by the gas and sometimes killed.
Our trees have always leaved out later.
It is dangerous for any person to enter the
house for at least an hour after the door is
open, as one can feel the effects of the gas to
a greater or less extent even then. Every
care should be taken as one breath of the gas
would be fatal.
The room I use is studded up and down,
papered with heavy paper, then sided with
shiplap on the outside. On the inside it is
boarded with shiplap; then heavy paper was
put on with paste. The size of the room is
15 feet by 11 feet by 8 feet, containing in all
1320: cunie feet,
A THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
J
oe
SCIONS TO SAVE GIRDLED TREES.
(American Horticultural Manual. )
Young orchard trees are often girdled in
winter by mice, rabbits, and sometimes by
sheep. If sawed off below the injury they
usually fail to grow from the stub, as buds
are slow in development at that point, and
the sap-pressure, as the heat comes on,
brings about ferment and low vitality of the
stub and the roots. Such trees can be saved
by cleft-grafting of the stub. A scion is in-
serted on both sides of the stub to favor the
healing of the wound. If both grow, the
weaker one is cut back after making growth
enough to help in covering the wound on
that side with cell-growth. The well estab-
lished stub will give rapid growth from the
strong buds of the scion, and in one season
develop a tree with side branches. Trees
saved in this way will come into bearing
about as soon as those not girdled set at the
same time. This plan is better to save
young orchard trees than inserting scions to
bridge over the stem injury. But where
quite large trees are disbarked in any way in
the dormant season, it is best to spring in
scions as shown by figure 5. When the bark
begins to peel in spring, scions somewhat
longer than the space to be bridged are cut
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 75
to a wedge at each end as for cleft-grafting,
and by bending the scion, the wedge ends
Figure 5.
are slipped between the bark and wood
through openings cut above and below the
injury. The parts are waxed, and then thie
whole is covered with burlap or old cloth.
THE SAN JOSE SCALE.
One of the most interesting as well as notor-
ious of insects is the San Jose Scale, which
had its starting place in America in the Cali-
fornia town for which it is named, and which
has become famous among orchardists the
world over on that very account. The tiny
scale has, in fact, been the means of making in-
sects internationally important and of giving
them a prominent place in the regulation of
commerce. Its discovery and investigation
have aroused both at home and abroad general
and keen interest in the whole subject of insect
76 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
control. And this pest has been the indirect
means of the finding out of effective and val-
uable methods for checking others.
HISTORY AND ORIGIN.
(This section was adopted from Year Book of 1899,
U. S. Department of Agriculture).
The story of the origin and career of this
insect 1s not without interest and has been
the subject of much dispute and study. It
was first noticed in this country in the grounds
of Jame Lick in San Jose in the early seven-
ties, and from there it was known to have
spread to other orchards which had direct
communication with those of Mr. Lick. He
was a great lover of imported trees and plants,
and it was naturally inferred that in some of
these importations he had introduced the in-
sect. However, as Mr. Lick’s death occurred
before the investigation was well started,
it was impossible to trace his importations.
The United States government then sent
entomologists to eastern countries mainly to
Japan and China; and some investigators
went to Europe. The scale was found in
many places, and, in nearly all cases, it was
observed that the original nursery-stock had
been brought from the United States. In
China, the Commission found Haw apples,
the native pear, and the crab-apple infested.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 77
This was a significant discovery. The Haw
apple is a wild fruit growing on the hill-sides
of that section of China, and the native crab
and pear have grown there immemorially.
Therefore the occurence of the Sair Jose scales
ou these fruits had but one explanation, —
that in this region it was a native. No
United States importations had reached that
place. ‘The conclusion seemed to be estab-
lished that Mr. Lick had brought it to Amer-
ica in some nursery-stock imported from North
China. It is the general belief that it came
here on the flowering Chinese peach.
Up to 1893 the San Jose scale (which is
then properly the Chinese scale) was not
known to have reached the important pear
and apple districts of the eastern and middle
states. At this time, however, it was seen in
a small orchard in Charlottesville, Va. Up-
on investigation it was found that the insect
had appeared in some large eastern nurseries
six years earlier on plum trees obtained from
the San Jose district, and that it had thus
spread to other nurseries, which had sent
their stock over the eastern and southern
states.
The great importance of this discovery
was generally recognized, and every effort
was inade to find the places of infestation,
78 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
with the idea of exterminating the pest be-
fore it had become too widely scattered.
This, however, was proved by the work of a
year or two to be an idle hope. It was
demonstrated that the scale could not be ex-
terminated, but can be controlled by spraying
and fumigating. The result of fears awak-
ened in the United States was transferred to
foreign countries, and, beginning with Ger-
many, one after another adopted measures
prolibiting the importation of American
plants and fruits or requiring rigid examina-
tion before admission. Canada also adopted
sunilar restrictions, and, as a result our for-
eign trade in plants and fruits was much cur-
tailed. In spite of all efforts the San Jose
scale has slowly extended its range until it
now occurs in every state in the Union and in
portions of Canada. It is most abundant in
the Pacific Coast States and in the Atlantic and
Gulf States. There is less in the middle
west and central states of the northern part
due, perhaps to the rains and extreme cold.
The early losses from it were considerable,
as it is perhaps the only scale pest which,
unchecked, willin two or three years actually
kill the plant attacked.
APPEARANCE.
It is a small lemon-colored louse covered
THE
FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
79
Fioure 6 —San Tose Scale.
SO THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
with a dark brown scale about the size of a
small pin head. ‘The male scale is elongated,
while the female is circular. When highly
magnified it resembles the pupil of the eye,
and when dead it is of a grayish white.
HABE.
The female scale when once settled on a
limb, never moves but sucks the sap out of
the tree until the tree dies. If the tree is
cut down and the flow of sap is stopped, the
scale dies in a few days.
The mother scale commences bearing
young about the first of June. She bears
from one to five each day for a period of six
weeks and then dies. The young scale comes
to maturity in about twenty-three days, and
is then ready to reproduce. Thus the pro-
geny of a single scale in one season will
reach into tensof millions. ‘The young scale
is about the size of a point of a pin, and
moves over the limb with the rapidity of a
sinall ant.
A bird, especially the crow or the robin,
carries scales from one place to another; they
light upon an affected tree, and the young
scale gets onto their feet and is carried for
miles in this way. Flies and bees carry it as
well. On an apple tree it makes red spots
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE Si
on the bark and this is more easily detected
when the bark is wet. When the tree is
badly affected, it looks as though it were
covered with wood-ashes. A badly affected
prune, cherry, or plum tree holds its dead
leaves all winter, but a plum or prune that
is only slightly affected can be detected by
rubbing the finger over the limb. A greasy
streak will appear wherever there is a scale.
It attacks all kinds of fruit trees and shrub-
bery; it is worse on currants than on any
other berry and is bad on the hedge fence,
sometimes known as osage orange. It affects
forest trees but slightly—mountain ash more
than any other.
When the young scale is crawling on the
tree it gets into the leaves and the fruit.
Those that get into the leaves perish when
the leaves die. On an apple, it makes little
red spots in the center of which is a small
black spot, which is the scale. When one
rubs off the scale, there is left a tiny white
spot which shows where it has once been.
HOW TO TREAT THE SAN JOSE SCALE.
There are just two ways to treat the San
Jose scale. One is to cut the tree down and
burn it up. The other is to spray with the
lime, sulphur, and salt spray, according to
52 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
Formula I, page 69. Other formulas have
been frequently advanced, but they have
never proved a success. If the ingredients
as given in Formula I, are cooked carefully
according to directions as to length of cook-
ing and amount of water, there cannot be the
least question that every scale on a tree will
be killed if every portion of the tree is reached
by the spray. ‘The spraying should be done
while the tree is dormant.
OYSTER SHELL BARK SCALE.
{Fourth Biennial Bulletin of Idaho State Board of Horti-
cultural Inspection. }
This pest is not nearly so dangerous as the
San Jose scale, but 1s much harder to destroy
on account of its breeding habits. ‘The
mother deposits from thirty to sixty eggs in
the fall underneath the shell. ‘These eggs
are very small but hard like a hen’s eggs.
The mother shrivels up after depositing all
the eggs, and the shell remains over them
until the hatching period in June. Some
say that it is impossible to spray during the
dormant season but I do not agree with them.
Although the eggs are well protected with
the outside shell, yet they can be destroyed
by adding 6 boxes of lye to every 100 gallons
of the lime, sulphur and salt spray as in
Formula I. ‘The lye eats into the outer
Figure 7.—Oyster Shell Bark Scale.
shell and leaves them exposed, Conse-
quently very few hatch.
PUTNAM SCALE.
(Idaho Bulletin of 1902.)
This insect reproduces its species through
the medium of the egg. It is therefore not
nearly so dangerous as the San Jose or Curtis
scale.
It isa native of this country and conse-
84 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
quently is wide-spread, extending from New
York to California. The exuvia or center of
the nipple shows when rubbed slightly orange
instead of lemon color. ‘The discoloration
produced on light barked trees by this scale
does not penetrate so deeply as that of the
San Jose scale for while the purplish color of
the San Jose scale extends into the bark, the
discoloration of the Putnam scale seldom
goes deeper than the epidermis or surface.
For this reason it is often mistaken for the
san Jose scale. I have never found it in
such numbers as to do great harm. It is to
be found mostly on cottonwoods. Spray with
lime, sulphur and salt spray in spring.
THE CURTIS SCALE.
(Idaho Bulletin of 1902.)
This species of scale stands next to San
Jose scale in importance on account of its be-
ing viviparous, that is, it produces living
young, and is oviparous or egg-laying. The
exuvia or center of the nipple is surrounded
by a whitish ring. ‘This scale does not have
a real margin around it as has the San Jose,
aud it is of a rougher appearance.
This scale should be sprayed with the
lime, sulphur and salt spray in the dormant
season. Formula I.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 85
COTTON CUSHION SCALE,
(Economic Entomology by Jno. B. Smith, Sc. D.)
Cotton Cushion scale is mostly found on
the maple tree. It usually attracts attention
in spring when cotton masses become numer-
ous on twigs or leaves, increasing in size
until they are one-fourth of an inch in length.
Figure 8.—Cotton Cushion Scale.
The mass seems cottony, but it is actually
awaxorgum. Ifa bit is taken up with the
fingers, it can be drawn out into a string six
inches long. It forms a bedding for minute
86 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GULDE
egos which have been laid by insects under
the brown scale which forms the head of the
mass attached to the twig. From these
eggs, minute crawling larvae hatch much
like the eggs in color. In a day or two each
larvae inserts its beak into a leaf or twig,
and a little flattened oval scale is formed.
This scale is not very destructive as birds
pick them off. ‘They can be killed by spray-
ing in summer, when the young hatch, with
Formula I].
ROSE AND BERRY SCALE.
(Fourth Biennial Bulletin of Idaho State Board of Horti-
cultural Inspection. )
‘This scale usually attacks shrubbery such
as raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries,
currant-bushes, and rose-bushes.
It is pure white and very conspicuous, a
little larger than a pin-head when full grown.
Spray with lime, sulphur and salt spray
(Formula I) in the dormant season.
CODLING-MOTH OR APPLE WORM.
(In writing up the codling-moth, the flat-headed
borer, the peach-tree borer, the peach-twig borer, the
red-spider, the pear and cherry slug, the apple scab, and
mildews, the present writer has reproduced the articles
on those subjects as published in the Fourth Biennial
Bulletin of the Idaho State Board of Horticultural In-
spection, and prepared by Mr. Alex. McPherson. Cer-
tain modifications have been made in accordance with
later experiments made by the present author. )
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 87
The codling-moth is the most serious pest
with which the fruit-grower has to contend
and has been known for over 2000 years.
Its original home was probably southeast-
ern Europe, and it has spread until it prob-
ably infests every apple-growing section on
the globe. The moth was first noticed in
Idaho twenty-four years ago and was thought
to have been brought here in a shipment of
eastern apples. At the present time nearly
every orchard is more or less infested.
The larva passes the winter in a silken
cocoon hidden in crevices and under the
rough bark of the tree. It will seek a home
almost any place where it can hide away.
Packing and storage houses often become
veritable pest-houses unless they can be thor-
oughly disinfected.
In the spring the larva changes to a pupa
and a few days later the moth emerges. As
soon as the moths come forth they pair and
in a few days begin to deposit their eggs;
sometimes on the apple, but more often on
the twigs and leaves. ‘The eggs are white,
circular, and nearly flat. The moth usually
remains at rest during the day and deposits
its eggs late in the afternoon or in the early
evening. Hatching usually begins in six or
or seven days and continues for an indefinite
88 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
period. The larva or worm when hatched _
is but little larger than a horse-hair, the body
being white or pink and the head black. It
feeds two or three days on the leaves or on
the outside of the apple; then seeks the
apples, entering at the calyx or eye as the
Figure 9.—The Codling Moth or Apple Worm.
a, the moth or adult insect, slightly enlarged; 6, the egg greatly
enlarged; c, the full-grown larva slightly enlarged; d, the pupa,
slightly enlarged; ¢, the pupa in its cocoon on the inner surface of a
piece of bark, reduced about one-half; 7, moth on bark and empty
pupa skin from which it emerged, about natural size (original).
Codling Moth.—From Farmers’ Bulletin No. 171, by permission,
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, by C. B.
Simpson.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 89
skin of the apple seems more tender at that
point.
The worm feeds a few days just under the
skin and then proceeds to tunnel towards the
center of the fruit. When full-grown, (this
requires about twenty-one days) it tunnels to
the outside of the fruit again. If the wormy
apple falls to the ground, the worm will
leave the apple and crawl to the base of the
tree or to the nearest hiding place. Ifthe
apple remains on the tree, the worm will
come down either by its spinerette or will
crawl to some hiding place on the tree; and
in seven or eight days it is transformed to a
miller again.
The moth is of a dark brownish gray color,
and when at rest its wings are closely folded.
The ends of the wings are V shaped with a
copper-colored border, although sometimes a
dark cream-colored moth is found. Other-
wise their form and shape are nearly always
the same, being about three-fourths of an
inch long.
The question of the number of broods is as
yet unsettled. Some claim that there are
only two broods, but Iam inclined to think
from the fact that the first miller appears
early in the spring and that millers can be
found as late as October, there must be three
broods.
go THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
I have never detected a codling-imoth
miller on the tree. ‘They always remain
hidden during the day. They are very wild
and fly rapidly. ‘They are never attracted
by light, but, on the contrary, avoid it.
Most millers seen are not codling-moth
millers as iserronously supposed. ‘They may
be seen only by letting the worm hatch ina
glass jar.
TREATMENT OF CODLING-MOTH.
In fighting the codling-moth the first
thing to do is to destroy all the larva before
they have time to become moths. ‘The store
rooms or other places where apples have
been kept should be gone over and all the
larva destroyed; rubbish and trash should
be removed from the orchard and burned; all
boxes and other places where the worm
might hide should be thoroughly examined
and the worms killed; then in February or
March shovel away the earth around the tree
to a depth of three or four inches; this is
necessary as many of the worms find refuge
in the bark and cracks just under the surface
of the ground. ‘Then take a heavy piece of
muslin or canvas and hem one side over a
strong cord; tie this tightly around the tree
close to the ground; scrape off all rough
bark, clean out all cracks where the worm
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE gt
might be in hiding, clean out all holes, pare
5)
smooth all cuts and broken places.
BANDING.
Banding the trees is one of the essential
adjuncts for the control of the moth, as well
as being an aid in determining the proper
time to spray. About four weeks after the
blossoms fall put on the bands. The band
should be of somewhat fuzzy texture, double
and as wide as convenient; about four inches
will do. It should be just long enough to
pass around the tree and lap over two or
three inches. Drive a box nail into the tree,
leaving it stick out about one inch; cut the
head off the nail with a pair of clippers; fas-
ten one end of the band on the nail; pass it
around quite closely and fasten the other end.
The bands should be watched and as soon
as the worm appears they should all be taken
off and the worm killed. After the worms
begin to appear the bands should be exam-
ined and the worms killed every eight or ten
days until the fruit is picked. After this
allow the bands to remain until all the strag-
eling worms have gone under the bands,
which is usually sometime in December. If
the trees are large, having ‘limbs near the
ground, it is well to band each limb as well
as the trunk.
Q2 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
SPRAYING.
Use Formula No. IV. Follow carefully
directions given as to when to spray in the
chapter on the Spraying of Trees and Shrub-
bery, pave 71.
THE FLAT-HEADED BORER.
(Apple Tree Borer.)
This insect usually attacks the apple but
is often found attacking other trees.
It is a pale yellow-colored grub with a flat
head very large in size as compared with its
body.
Vhe larva makes irregular channels or
chambers under the bark girdling and killing
&
Figure 10.—The Flat-head Apple-borer; a, larva;
b, pupa; @, adult.
the young trees. The mother beetle lays
the eggs in June or July. ‘The larva lives
from one to three years before coming to
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 93
maturity. It seldom attacks healthy strong
growing trees.
It may be detected by means of its costings
which are thrown out as the insect works its
way into the tree.
In seeking a remedy for this borer, it will
be found best to wrap the young trees with
several thicknesses of strong paper extending
two inches below the surface of the ground
to the first limb and tied rather tightly at
the top to prevent the mother beetle from
getting inside the paper. I have tried this
remedy many times and have succeeded in
saving the trees so wrapped from the ravages
of the borer. Other checks which I left as
checks were killed. In case the tree has not
been well wrapped and the borer has entered, it
should be searched for and when found taken
out and killed. The tree may recover.
PEACH TREE BORER.
The female of this moth deposits her eggs
in the bark of a tree close to the ground.
The eggs are very small, ovalin form slightly
flattened at the ends, and of a dull yellowish
color. They are fastened to the bark by a
gummy secretion. As soon as the worm is
hatched, it works downward to the bark in
the root forming a small winding channel
that soon fills with gum. As the worm in-
94 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
creases in size, it devours the bark and sap
causing a copious exudation of gum around
the base of the tree. It sometimes attacks
the tree farther up, usually in the fork; but
it may be detected at any time by the pres-.
ence of the exuding gum. Its operations are
not always confined to the peach, as it also
works on the plum. The moth which pro-
duces the borer looks almost like a wasp. It
should be treated the same as the flat-headed
borer.
PEACH TWIG BORER.
(Anarsia Lineatella. )
This grub is the larva of a moth, about
half an inch in length when fully grown, and
Fig. 11—Anarsia lineatella: a, twig of peach, showing
in croteh minute masses of chewed bark above larval
chambers; 4, latter much enlorged; ¢, a larval cell, with
contoined larva; d, dorsal view of young larva more en-
larged (original).
Peach Twig Borer—From Farmer’s Bulletin No. 80, U.
S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomology.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 95
of a light reddish color. It only attacks trees
bearing pit fruit. It passes the winter in its
cocoon in the cracks and crevises of the trees,
transforming to a moth about the time the
trees begin to bud, which soon begins to lay
eggs as the young twigs start. From the
effect of their work the ends of the young
shoots begin to wither. At the first appear-
ance of the young shoots having a worm in
them, they should be cut off and burned.
The second brood attacks both twigs and fruit.
The first broed appears in May, and the sec-
ond in July and August. This insect is
intermittent, the number of insects apparently
being greatly reduced some years by natural
causes,
TREATMENT.
Use Formula No. I in the dormant season.
RED SPIDER.
This is very small. It is found mostly on
peach and pear trees. It works around the
forks of the limb and sucks the sap from the
tree. It lays its eggs in the fall on the tree,
and they hatch early in the spring just as the
buds open. The eggs are so small that they
can not be seen with the naked eye. With
the aid of a magnifying glass, millions may
be observed on a small limb.
They should be sprayed early in the spring
gO THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
with the lime, sulphur and salt spray, asin
Formula No. I.
PEAR AND CHERRY SLUG.
This isa dark shiny larva that feeds on
the leaves of the pear and cherry. It some-
Figure 12,—Pear and Apple Slug.
a, adult; 6, larva; c, same in normal state; d, leaves
with the larva attached natural size; a, 6, c, much en-
larged.
times attacks other trees as well. It does
considerable damage by eating away the pulp
of the leaves which then wither making the
tree unable to mature its fruit.
There are two broods in a season; the first
brood hatches about the first of June and the
second in July.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 97
The slug-fly lays the eggs in the leaves
during the last of May and they hatch in
about two weeks. If left alone, they will
render a tree unpreductive and perhaps kill
it entirely.
They should be sprayed as soon as detected
on the leafas they eat rapidly. Spray with
poison, as in Formula IV. |
APPLE SCAB.
DESCRIPTION,
The apple scab attacks the leaves and fruit.
The first indication of the disease is shown by
light spots on the leaves, afterwards turning
to a dirty green or black color; as the season
advances it is shown on the fruit by dark
green or blackish spots surrounded by a nar-
row white margin that loosens, but does not
destroy, the cuticle of the apple. The
disease in its worst state causes the dropping of
the foliage from the tree. The apple ceases
to grow and becomes distorted and unsightly.
The fungus receives its sustenance within the
outer skin of theapple. ‘Thus the damage is
restricted to badly spotted or distorted fruit,
rendering it worthless and unsaleable. The
spores are distributed by the wind and rain,
the disease making its greatest headway
during moist warm weather. If the disease
98 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
is allowed to run unchecked the tree becomes
dwarfed and unprofitable.
The apple scab is one of the most pernicious
fungus diseases we have to contend with and
in the humid portions of the State it 1s quite
a serious pest. Yet it can be successfully
subdued or eradicated if fruit growers will
follow the directions given. As a multitude
of spores of the apple scab pass the winter on
fallen leaves, they should be plowed or spaded
under in the dormant season, or, better still,
raked upand burned. All twigs, trimmings,
etc., from the orchard should be gathered up
and burned, and the orchard spraved with
Formula No. I, just as the buds are beginning
to open. It is not only the best fungicide in
the dormant season, that I know of, but it is”
also the best insecticide, and should be used
in preference to all of the remedies, especially
if there is a suspicion that the San Jose scale
is, or may be, in the orchard. ‘his may be
supplemented by using the Bordeaux Mix-
ture, (Formula III) as soon as the foliage is
well out, and its use continued at intervals
of about two weeks, going over the orchard
from three to five times. Formula IV should
be added to this for the codling-moth. These
formulas readily combine, thus spraying for
both the codling-moth and fungus diseases
at the same time.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE gg
MILDEWS.
There are several mildews found on culti-
vated plants in Idaho. Among these may
be mentioned Powdery Mildew of the grape,
Gooseberry Mildew, Peach Mildew, Apple
Mildew and Rose Mildew. Of these the
most serious, and the only ones effecting
much damage at present, are the first two.
Like many other fungus diseases, these have
two forms, a summer or conidial form, and a
winter or perithecial form. The first occurs
early in the growing season, the second later.
The first appears in all of these mildews as a
delicate, white, cobwebby coating on leaves,
young stems, or even on the fruit. Sprays,
to be efficacious, must be applied at this time.
The second form coats the parts of the host
with a dark covering, and when this has
formed, spraying avails nothing, as the spray
cannot reach the well protected spores.
These spore bodies begin to form about July,
so all spraying should be given prior to this
month.
POWDERY MILDEW OF THE GRAPE.
This is found most abundant on the Vin-
ifera or European type of grapes, being found
hardly at all, in Idaho, on the American
grapes,
100 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
TREATMENT.
In the spring use Formula No. I just as
the leaves are coming out. In summer use
Formula No. III. Better results will be at-
tained by this method than by using the
Bordeaux alone throughout the season.
BITTER ROT OF APPLES:
(The discussion below is based on ‘‘The Bitter Rot of
Apples,”’ published by the U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture, Bureau of Plant Industry—Bulletin No. 44.)
Bitter rot is one of the most destructive of
fungus diseases. It is found in twenty-seven
of the eastern states, and is most prevalent
in the central states. ‘The loss occasioned
by this disease alone amounts to $10,00G,0C0
annually.
Up to the present time, bitter rot has not
made its appearance in the Pacific states,
and, if proper care be taken, it may never do
so. It is included in this book partly to cau-
tion intending purchasers against buying
trees already infested with the fungus, and
partly to inform orchardists concerning its
appearance and progress so that it may be
recognized and coped with in case it does
come among us. |
The bitter rot puts in appearance at differ-
ent dates during July and August, climatic
conditions causing the varying of its seasons.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE TOI
Warm sultry weather following a rain is a
condition highly favorable to the develop-
ment of the disease. It may be found in or-
chards in cool dry seasens, but it is then not
so destructive. A few hot wet days in Aug-
ust may bring on a sudden attack which will
prove very fatal in its results. Nights of
heavy dew followed by hot days are likely to
develop the disease. The whole crop has
sometimes been destroyed, and that, too, in
a few days.
The first sign of the bitter rot is in the
form of a very faint light brown color under
the skin of the apple. At first the spots -are
very small, and, as they grow larger, they
become circular in outline. Their growth is
very rapid, the color becoming a darker
brown. When the spots are still no larger
than one-eighth of an inch across, they seem
to sink. ‘The outline is sharply defined, and
almost a perfect circle. When the diameter
has reached one-half of an inch, little black
spots appear at almost regular intervals be-
neath the skin of the sunken area. These
increase in size, aud project as tiny raised
points. Afterward they break through the
skin, and great numbers of spores thus es-
cape. ‘These spores, when not washed away,
form a sticky mass which clings to the apple
102 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
when dry. On dry quiet nights the spores
are discharged in long tendril-like threads
which are the fruiting bodies of this disease.
These black bodies are often formed in the
shape of a ring. As the rot progresses, other
tings of pistules appear outside of the first
one, and at regular intervals, six, eight, or
even more forming in rapid suecession.
“ach ring has hundreds of pistules all pro-
ducing Spores at the same time so that num-
erous rings are appearing continually. The
formation of these rings depends on the
rapidity with which the fungus grows. The
most perfect rings are formed when the
growth is miost rapid.
THE CANKER STAGE.
The cankers found in [lnois appear like
blackened depressions on liinbs of various
sizes, sometimes on those of last year’s fruit-
spurs, and sometimes on limbs three or four
inches thick. None of the cankers have yet
been found on the main stock. The canker
is a sooty black sunken spot, rounded or ob-
long in shape, and from one to several inches
in length.
The fungus is likely to start at some small
wound. It starts to grow in the bark and
kills it and the cambium layer. The result
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 103
is that no new wood is formed at the point
where the cambium is killed. Asthe fungus
grows out from the place of infection, ef
course more and more bark and cambium are
killed, so that by the end of the growing sea-
son, a very large spot on the limb is dead.
It probably makes its first appearance in the
bark in June.
Spray in the spring with Formula I; and
in the summer with Formula III.
PHYLLOXERA VASTATRIX.
(Adapted from ‘‘EKconomic Entomology’’ by Jno. B.
Smith, Sc. D:)
This insect winters on the roots of grapes,
mostly as a young wingless form. It starts
its growth in spring rapidly increasing in
size and soon commences to lay eggs. The
young, like their mother, remain wingless.
They are also sexless and also lay eggs. So
we may havea series of generations of sim-
ilar creatures, no true sexes becoming de-
veloped, no wings appearing, and reproduc-
tion being entirely through unfertilized eggs.
Some times in mid-summer some individuals
acquire wings, and thus we get migrating
forms, which issue from the ground while
yet in the pupa stage; and as soon as they
become winged, they fly and spread to other
vineyards in the vicinity. Eggs are then
To4 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
laid, usually three to eight being the range,
while five are perhaps the usual number.
They are of two sizes, of which the larger ,
Phylloxera vastatrix.—a, unaffected rootlet of grape; 6, root-
lets with newly-formed galls; c, same, with old and dried-up tissue;
dd, groups of the lice on roots and rootlets; ¢, 4, female pupa, from
above and below; 2, 2, winged females; 7, an antenna; 7, ovipar-
ous wingless female and her eggs; 4, root showing location of the
eggs,
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 105
produces females, and the other, males.
‘They come from the eggs fully developed
and ready to reproduce. ‘These curious crea-
tures have become modified for the purpose
of reproducing their kind. They cannot
feed, for the mouth is aborted; nor fly, for
they have no wings. After copulation a
single egg, alinost as large as the insect itself
is developed in the female, and from it
hatches a form which is like the type which
started the cycle early in the season. Curi-
ously enough, it occasionally happens that
some of the wingless forms which remain
under ground also lay eggs of two different
sizes producing males and females, and thus
it appears that winged forms are not really
necessary to the continuation of the species.
Often wingless individuals abandon the
roots and crawl up the stems to the leaves,
where they form the galls, which are the
most prominent external indications that a
vine is infested. If one of these galls be cut
open, the inside will be found lined with
numerous minute yellow insects with dusky
wings, which lie folded flat over the back;
and in this particular the Phylloxera differs
from the typical ophids, which have the
wings vertical when at rest.
This insect has made its appearance in the
106 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
north of Idaho, but not as yet in the
south. Experiments for its eradication
have not yet proved successful. Horticul-
turalists are now at work on the problem.
CURL. LEA (OF Wir PRACK.
(Consult ‘‘The California Fruits’? by Edward J. Wickson. )
‘The curl leaf is due to parasitic fungi. It
occurs in various degrees. Mild cases do not
seem to injure tree or fruit, severe cases
destroy the fruit and sometimes the tree
itself.
The disease is almost always at its height
when the young fruit is about the size of
small peas. If the curl is ‘‘bad,’’ the fruit
will fall to the ground, there not being
healthy leaves enough to afford the required
support. If, however, the curl is moderate
and partial, only a part and sometimes none
of the fruit will be lost. The disease, as is
well known, is of brief duration, lasting, per-
haps, from 12 to 20 days, after which the
tree resumes a healthy appearance in every
respect. If the fruit has been able to survive
the ordeal, it appears to grow and become
perfect as if no check had been felt.
Treatment: Spray in the spring with
Formula I and in the summer with Formula
IIT.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE OF,
ROSE BEETLE.
The rose beetle is a red bug about the size
of a small lady-bug, with long slender black
legs and a proboscis about a quarter of an
inch long. It appears on the rose bush be-
fore opening and bores a great many holes
through the bud, causing it not to open.
‘This beetle 1s very destructive toa rose bush.
About the only remedy is to spray with
poison.
HONEY SUCKLE BEETLE.
The honey suckle beetle is a lead colored
bug, with long proboscis or bill. It eats in
at the end of the young shoot and checks the
erowth. It also eats the foliage. It can be
killed by a poisonous spray.
RED RUST ON BLACKBERRY VINES.
This is a fungus disease. About mid-
summer it will be noticed that the cane and
the leafof the blackberry turn red all over.
Even the roots will be covered with red spots,
some being one-fourth inch in diameter, and
almost a solid mass over the leaf will be seen.
The only remedy is to dig the vine up and burn
ie
GRAPE SLUG.
(Larvae of Blennocamipa. )
This is a black dotted worm about an inch
105 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
long, and it resembles a small caterpillar.
It feeds on the leaf of the grape, causing the
leaf to roll up. It is easily killed by using
one ounce of white hellebore to one gallon of
water.
FROZEN SAP BLIGHT.
Frozen sap blight is caused by the exces-
sive dryness of the ground early in the season.
The sap rises and the tree makes a short
growth. Not having nourishment, the tree
concludes its growth early in the fall. When
the fall rains commence, if the weather con-
tinues warm, the tree starts to make another
erowth. Before the sap has time to come
back down the tree to make the cell-growth
that enlarges the stem of the tree, freezing
weather comes, and the sap is frozen in these
cells. It becomes dark and discolored, and
sticky; and remains there failing to go down
to the roots. ‘The next year the new sap
rises, the tree leaves out, and the fruit and
growth starts just as if nothing were wrong,
but by July when the sap gets back down the
trunk where it was frozen in those cells it 1s
not able to pass this frozen sap, and conse-
quently the new sap oozes out, and runs down
on the outside of the bark. When examined,
the sap smells soured, or like anything that:
has been frozen and thawed. The tree will
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 10g
then begin todie. For this disease there is on
remedy. The only preventativeis the proper
watering of the tree.
THE BOX ELDER BUG.
(Dysdereus Sutrellis. )
This is the red bug or cotton stainer. It
has a long beak and a head of moderate size.
The body is rather hard, and the color is a
brilliant black and red. The insects feed on
the leaf of the box elder and are quite trouble-
some about the house. They are found in
all crevices on the outside of the houses if
box elders are near. They are quite a pest
in the southern states, as they work on cotton
seed, and stain the cotton red; they also attack
oranges in Florida. ‘They are trapped by
placing small heaps of cotton seed in a grove
to attract them where they can easily be de-
stroyed with pure kerosene.
The young are found on the box elders in
Jnly,
FALL WEB WORM.
(Hyphantria Cunea. )
This species appears at its worst in the fall
(hence its name,) while the apple tree tent
caterpillar appears only in the spring. There
are several species of tent caterpillar in Idaho.
Among the number are the forest tree cater-
pillar, the yellow-necked caterpillar, etc.
LLO THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
All of them are on the increase and should
be destroyed as soon as discovered. This can
be done either in the egg state, by destroying
the eggs wherever found (the eggs are easily
seell appearing in masses, stuck fast to the
branches of the trees, etc., or in their tents,
when they appear later in the season,) or by
cutting off the branch and burning it, or by
taking a piece of old cloth, saturating it with
coal oil, fastening it to the end of a pole,
setting it on fire and burning by passing the
flame quickly around the limb under them.
Use Remedy No. III, if there are too many of
them for the above treatment.
THE FOREST TREE TENT CATERPILLAR
( Malacosoma Fragilis. )
(The following press bulletin by Prof. J. M. Aldrich,
of the University of Idaho, Agricultural Experiment
Station, is inserted by permission. )
The insect was very abundant and destruct-
ive in the vicinity of Bellevue last season,
and will be much more so this year. Hence
it seems necessary to call the attention of
residents of that neighborhood and the sur-
rounding country to the necessity of early
and thorough treatment for the purpose of
reducing the injury as much as possible.
The mature insect is a moth of medium
size and yellowish color. ‘The damage 1s
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE III
done by the larva or caterpillar, which when
full grown is a long blackish kind, witha
few small lighter marks and a narrow bluish
stripe down the middle of the back. It is
somewhat hairy, and the skin has a covering
of black, velvety down.
The life history is as follows: ‘The eggs
hatch early in the spring, as soon as the
leaves of trees begin to unfold. The eggs
being in masses of a hundred or more, the
insects appear in colonies, and begin to spin
a web on branches about or near the place
of hatching. They soon devour all the foli1-
age near this web, and before half grown
they scatter and do not afterward live in the
web or in a colony. ‘They reach their full
size about July 10, and make a yellow co-
coon on the tree, enclosed in a few loose
threads of silk. They usually draw together
a few leaves, or fragments of leaves, to form
a partial cover for the cocoon. It may be
formed at some distance (fifty feet or more)
from where the caterpillar has been eating.
The next stage is passed in the cocoon; it is
brief, and the moths come out about July 20.
They proceed at once to lay eggs for the
next season. These are placed on twigs or
branches, in the form of a brownish mass,
covered with a frothy material so that the
It2 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
shape of the eggs cannot be distinctly seen.
There are about a hundred eggs in a mass,
aud they are laid before the first of August.
Nothing further happens until the next
spring, as there is only one brood of the in-
sect 11a year.
Their favorite food is the balm of Gilead
or cottonwood, many trees of which were al-
most entirely stripped ofleaves last year along
Wood River, in a region extending from two
iniles above Bellevue to three miles below.
There will naturally be considerable spread
this year, and trouble may be expected for
several miles beyond this area.
Last year several other kinds of trees and
shrubs were also eaten, and there is danger
that the species will be so numerous this
year as to cause serious loss to shade and or-
namental trees, currants, gooseberries, and
other small fruits, and to fruit trees where
they occur.
REMEDIES.
The first thing to do is to examine one’s
own premises immediately on receipt of this
warning, to see if any eggs have been de-
posited. The egg-masses are easily recog-
nized, as no other insect in the vicinity makes
the same kind. If found, they should be
destroyed. Crushing the mass or cutting
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 113
off the twig and burning it 1s perfectly effect-
ive and very easy. On large cottonwood
trees little can be done; but no doubt the
eggs are numerous on small trees and shrubs
in many places at some distance from such
trees. Here the attack can be nipped in the
bud. This preliminary work is very im-
portant.
After hatching, the caterpillars may be
destroyed by spraying their food plant with
Paris Green, one pound to 150 gallons of
water. ‘This will apply especially to garden
Prilits, ete,
Iu the immediate vicinity of Bellevue,
early and constant attention will be neces-
Baty. Abimore remote places, at least tlie
first inspection should be made; unless the
eggs are found on the premises or near by,
there is but little danger of trouble this year.
The amount of spread which occurred last
year after the moths hatched and before they
laid their eggs is not definitely known; it
may have been several miles.
The caterpillar suffered considerably last
year froin the attacks of several parasitic in-
sects. There is reason to expect that these
parasites will increase, in a year or two,
enough to reduce the number of caterpillars;
but the immense number of eggs that were
I14 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
laid last year makes it certain that the trouble
will be worse this year than last.
The worms do not travel as a rule more
than a few hundred feet from the place of
hatching; but the moths may fly a long dis-
tance before laying eggs. Hence the spread
occurs after the insect has finished feeding
for the year.
The experiment Station will correspond
with any who desire further advice.
FIRE BLIGHT:
(Sometimes called ‘‘Pear Blight.”’ )
(A press bulletin issued, dated March, 1904, by Profes-
sor lL. F. Henderson, of the Idaho Experiment Station,
which covers the ground very fully, is herewith ap-
pended. )
The name ‘‘Fire Blight’? is the proper
one to use; it should not be called ‘‘Pear
Blight’? for two reasons. In the first place
it is liable to be confused with the Pear-leaf
Blight, a disease which attacks the leaf of
the pear, and incidentally injures the fruit.
In the next place this disease is not limited
to the pear; it is fast becoming too common
on the apple as well, in our state. Nay, in
mlany states it attacks all of the pomaceous
fruits, such as pear, apple, quince, crab and .
hawthorn. ‘Three years ago, this disease
was unknown to the writer in the southern
part of the state; to-day, there is hardly an
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE ras
orchard in certain districts which does not
show some blight, and in many it is very ser-
ious. In Northern Idaho it has been in our
pear orchards for over ten years, but luckily
it has hardly ever attacked the apple. From
the devastation this disease is causing in the
Southern Idaho apple orchards, we cannot
expect that the northern portions of the state
will long be exempt.
His lORICAL.
Though this trouble has been known as
working havoc in the orchards for a century
or more, it is only in comparatively recent
times that its true nature has been well
understood. Fora long period of years the
discussions of this trouble were of such a
theoretic nature, that many horticultural
societies forbade its being brought up in their
meetings, unless someone had something of
absolute knowledge to offer about it. Vari-
ous causes were ascribed for its presence,
such as ‘‘sour sap,’’ ‘‘atmospheric condi-
bio)
fious,’’ **soil conditions,’ and ‘‘effects of var-
ious fungi.’? In 1878, however, Professor
Burrill of Illinois discovered the true cause
and announced his discovery to the world.
‘This was found to be a bacterial disease, due
to the presence of myriads of little germs in
116 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
the inner bark and cambium. The germ
was called by Prof. Burrill Micrococcus amy-
lovorus from the eagerness with which it
seizes upon and devours the starch in these
tissues. From the subsequent studies of
Arthur at the Geneva Station in New York,
and of Waite in the U. S. Department of Ag-
riculture, we know how this germ or bac-
terium lives, reproduces itself and is carried
from tree to tree.
APPEARANCE OF BLIGHT.
Luckily the disease is a very conspicuous
one, which renders its presence in an orchard
the more inexcusable when well known.
It effects twigs, leaves, young fruit, and even
the branches or trunks. From the experi-
ments of Waite, it has been found that it
cannot attack the plant through the unin-
jured bark or leaf. It can, however, gain
entrance through any injured place on trunk,
limb or even leaf. Its most common points
of entrance are natural ones. ‘These are the
young growing tips of the branch, the stig-
ma of the flower, or the glands which secrete
nectar. Therefore the ‘‘flower-blight,’’ the
‘“‘twig-blight,’? and the “‘branch or trunk
blight’? are all forms of this disease.
In the first, the young twig, especially if
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE ey,
it be growing rapidly, turns black in both
leaf and stem, and wherever the leaves are
blighted, they remain black and dead through
the ensuing winter. This black, piratical
flag is the surest evidence of its presence.
In the ‘‘flower-blight’? a whole bunch of
flowers, or frequently every bunch upon the
tree will be affected, and dying back to the
beginning of the spur, hold the blackened
flowers and young fruit also through the en-
tire year. ‘This is the most common form on
the apple.
Frequently an entire limb or even the
trunk will be affected for only a short dis-
tance, while the top will still be entirely free
from the disease, and this can only be under-
stood when we speak of how the disease is
spread.
More frequently upon the pear several
limbs and even the whole trunk will be af-
fected, and when this is the case the tree
should be cut out root and branch.
MEANS OF DISSEMINATION.
If the young shoots of a tree affected
with blight be examined, small drops of
sticky, thick fluid will be found exuding from
the edge of the diseased area. If one of
these drops be examined with a high power
118 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
of a microscope, myriads of little oblong
bodies will be seen, some separate, some in
short chains. ‘These are bacteria. Arthur
proved that these bodies, innoculated into a
sound tree by a needle, would produce the
disease; Waite proved to us beyond dispute
that insects, especially bees, are the main in-
struments in their dissemination. ‘They are
attracted by the viscid sap, suck up part or
all the drop, and then carry thousands of
these germs with them to innoculate flowers,
shoots, or wounded places in the bark. Un-
doubtedly heavy currents of wind assist in
spreading the disease and probably account
for the commonness of ‘‘twig-blight.’’ The
question comes right here: Shall I keep
bees if I have an orchard? Certainly, and
for two reasons. First, the honey, and the
revenue derived from it, are often no small
object to the farmer. Second, the bees are
absolutely needed to assist 11 proper cross-
fertilization or pollination of the flowers.
‘This leads us to the subject of remedies, for
preventatives there are none.
REMEDIES.
As soon as the bacteria are carried to young
flower or wound, they affect entrance, and
living upon the sap and_ starch, multiply
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE II9
rapidly. If they gain entrance along a limb
or trunk, they live in the inner bark and
cambium-layer,—that layer which adds year-
ly to the growth of both bark and wood.
It can readily be seen from this that they
are well covered, and consequently spraying
does no good. ‘The only remedy thus far
found has been and is the careful and con-
tinuous use of the saw and pruning knife.
All diseased shoots and limbs should be cut
off at from 6 inches to one foot below the
place of evident infection or injury, as the
bacteria have always gone down deeper into
the limb than seems to be the case from the
outside. Many pruners have the habit of
splitting down the bark to see how far the
disease has proceeded, but this practice is to
be condemned, as they never can see how
far the disease has proceeded, and the incis-
ion of the knife may carry the bacteria from
diseased to healthy tissues. If the blight is
bad in either the pear or apple-orchard, the
knife or saw should be sterilized each time it
is used, by either passing it through a flame
or dipping it into weak carbolic acid-water,
or into kerosene. ‘The pruned limbs or frag-
meuts should be collected and burned and
both pruning and burning should be done
mainly in the dormant season, before the sap
1VAS) THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
has started, the bacteria have awakened, and
the bees are visiting the orchard. ‘This is
the best time for pruning and burning, but
not the only one; it should be done whenever
the disease makes its appearance. All large
wounds should be painted over with paint as
soon as the tree is trimmed, to prevent the
re-innoculation through the exposed tissues.
Where the blight is bad, even young shoots
or water sprouts should have their cut bases
painted, for it has been shown time and again
that the limbs and even trunks have been in-
noculated through these cut stubs.
The pear is much more easily pruned for
this disease than is the apple. On the
former it commonly manifests itself in dead
or dying shoots, limbs, or trunks, which can
readily be cut away below the progress of
the disease. On the apple, however, it 1s
commonly the shoots all over the tree, and
especially the fruit spurs and their clusters
of flowers, which are most affected. Pruning
here becomes a much more difficult and even
serious undertaking. Where only a few
shoots and fruit spurs are affected these can
be cut away close to the tree, and the wound
immediately covered with paint. Where,
however, almost all of the fruit spurs on the
whole tree have died, the best way is to cut
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE IGA gt
off entire and large limbs, cover the wounds
with paint, and stimulate the production of
new shoots and subsequent fruit spurs.
Many such trees are to be found in and
around Boise, New Plymouth and many other
places. In the former place my attention
was called by Inspector McPherson to a very
interesting though sad evidence of the efh-
cacy of bees in spreading the disease. All
the splendid large apple trees near the hives
were Without exception seriously injured by
blight, while as we proceeded on radii from
the hives the blight grew less and less, and
almost disappeared on the edge of the orchard
farthest from the hive.
(The orchard here referred to is now practically free
from blight, which goes to show that the blight can be
controlled by following the approved methods. }
OTHER HELPS.
It has been often noticed that rapidly
growing trees are more subject to blight
than slower growers, and that those in low
ground or ‘‘swales’’? are more subject than
those on drier ground. Orchards should
therefore be planted on well drained land,
and should not be stimulated by too much
water or too much fertilizer.
Though all of the varieties of the poma-
ceous fruits are subject to this disease, as
122 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
said before, some varieties have been found
more subject to the attacks of blight than
others. Of the apples, the crabs of all kinds.
have been found very prone to blight.
Amonst the pear, in most places, the Anjou,
Angouleme and Seckel are most resistant,
Bartlett and Flemish Beauty are less so,
while the Idaho, Clapp and Winter Nellis are
very subject to blight.
L,. F. HENDERSON, Botanist.
JHB APHIS, OR PLANT <LOUSE.
For the following description of the Aphis I am indebt-
ed to Smith’s Economic Entomology.
The plant lice are well known to agricul-
turists by the injury they cause, and they are
interesting to the naturalist from their life
history. Here we have the most. striking
apparent exception to the general rules that
insects are developed from eggs, and yet per-
haps the exception is more apparant than
real. At all events parthenogenesis, or re-
production without the intervention of a male
occurs normally in a large percentage of the
species. Of course they are many differences
in life habits, but a general account, covering
most of the cases, is all that can be attempted
here. Asa rule, plant lice winter in the egg
stage; but this is subject to many exceptions,
especially in the warmer parts of the country.
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 123
Early in the spring, as soon as there is a trace
of reviving vegetation, these eggs hatch.
The insect that now appears is wingless, and
usually remains so, but grows rapidly by
sucking the plant juices, and soon begins to
produce living young. It is called a ‘‘stem-
mother,’’ because it is the source from which
numerous generations issue during the season.
All the young born by this stem mother are,
like herself, without sex; that is they are
neither males, nor sexually developed females.
The rate at which they are born, varies, but
as many as eight living young have been ob-
served within a period of twenty-four hours
from one specimen, and it is not unusual to
find, early in the season, a single large
louse surrounded by a group of anywhere
from a dozen to twenty or even more small
specimens. ‘The rate of growth also varies,
depending upon the weather; indeed weather
conditions, early in the season, frequently
determine the question of whether or not cer-
tain species are to become injurious later on.
A wari moist temperature favors their devel-
opment, and reproduction goes on at a rapid
rate. Correspondingly, cold, wet weather
checks development, and may even destroy a
large number, particularly the young. Plant
lice, in their young stages, are exceedingly
124 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
susceptible to sudden changes of temperature,
and at almost any time in the season a sudden
drop of from fifteen to twenty degrees, accom-
panied by a rain, will prove fatal toa great
proportion of them. But assuming that allis
favorable, the young that were first brought
forth, are in turn ready to reproduce in five
or six days, and they also form little colonies;
this method of reproduction continuing as
long as food is plentiful and weather mild.
Experimentally, reproduction of this kind
has been continued for several years in suc-
cession, without any tendancy to develop
sexed individuals or to produce eggs. At
almost any time after the first generation,
specimens may become winged, and these fly
to other localities, forming new colonies
wherever suitable food is found. In this way
they spread, and, though they may have
started from a single favorable colony, they
yet in their course ofa few weeks, cover many
hundreds of acres. Exactly what determines
the formation of wings in some specimens
aud not in others is not known. We do
know, however, that the progeny ofa single
individual is variable, and that some become
winged, others do not; but whether winged
or wingless, the specimens are equally with-
out sex, all are viviparous, or bring forth
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 125
living young. As the summer advances re-
production becomes less rapid. Plants tend
to dry, the supply of sap is not so plentiful,
aud these features become more marked
through the autumn months until, with the
approach of cold weather, plant growth en-
tirely ceases. It becomes necessary now to
provide for the continuation of the species
during winter, and sexed forms are developed.
The males are usually winged and appear a
short time before the females, which differ by
the lack of wings and the usually small size
compared with the normal sexless fori.
Pairing takes place as soon as the female is
sexually matured, and in a very few days
afterwards eggs are laid. In many instances
the egg supply 1s exceedingly small, indeed,
they may be one only matured by a female.
Even this many remain within the body of
the parent, who simply dries up the skin
shrivelling around and forming a protection
to the ovum. More usually several eggs are
produced, andthese oflargesizein proportion
tothe insect thatlays them. ‘They are green
or greenish-brown in color when laid, some-
times yellowish and frequently darken to black.
They are placed in sheltered situations on
plants, and, in the case oforchard trees, are
usually found at the tip of the twigs, around
126 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
the buds, or on the leaf-scales where vegetation
will first start, in the spring following. They
are very firm in texture and very resistant to
insecticides; in fact, it is impossible to destroy
them except by the most caustic mixtures.
It has been already indicated that there are
many exceptions to this general life history,
and one exception we find where species feed
during the summer upon a plant which dies
down to the ground, leaving nothing through
the winter. In such cases there is an alter-
nate food-plaut, upon which the winter and
early spring is passed. From this the in-
sects migrate in early summer and to it they
return when cold weather sets in. Such a
case we have is the hop louse, which spends
the summer upon the hop increasing
greatly in number in favorable seasons
and often causing much injury. When the
vines mature and die, males develop, and all
the lice fy to plum trees. Here the female
is born, the sexes mate, and eggs are laid.
In the spring two or more generations ma-
ture upon the plum, and, when the vines are
again well started, winged forms develop and
migrate to their summer food plant. This
sort of migration is not unusual, although it
has not been traced out in many cases.
Another example we find in the ‘melon
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 127
” which has a considerable range of
louse,
food plants, including cotton, orange, straw-
berry, and nearly all the common weeds of
our fields. If circumstances favor their in-
crease in spring, winged forms are produced
which migrate and settle upon melon fields,
providing for colonies during the summer.
The scientific problems connected with
this method of reproduction and spread are
of great interest, but cannot be entered upon
here; the mere statement of the case being
sufficient for practical purposes. Plant lice are
so commonly known thata detailed descrip-
tion of their appearance is unnecessary ; but
it is well to call attention to the presence of
a pair of little tubes or cornicles near the end
of the abdomen, projecting from the upper
surface. These are called honey tubes, and
from them is excreted a sweetish liquid
known as honey-dew. Sometimes, when
food is abundant and the insects are active,
the amount of sap they pump out of the
plants is so great that, in order to ease them-
selves, they void it in little streains through
the anus, as well as in drops through the
honey-tubes. Thus the leaves of infested
plants become sticky or glazed with a sweet-
ish liquid, on which a black fungus rapidly
develops, the leaf being frequently killed by
128 ‘THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
simply choking to death. Sometimes the
vegetation beneath a tree becomes thoroughly
coated in the same way, or, when shade trees
in cities are infested, the pavement becomes
wet and slippery with the viscid lhquid.
This honey-dew is often attractive for their
distribution. As they never come to the sur-
face, so far as we know they are never
winged, and are usually dull white in color,
or, with a slight tinge of green. The body
is covered with a whitish powder and lacks
honey-tubes.
WOOLLY APHIS.
In my district I have gathered thirty-two
different kinds of Aphis, which differ in size,
form and color. Some travel rapidly over
the foliage while others are very slow in their
movements, each apparently having its par-
ticular tree or plant to feed on, Of all the
Aphis, I consider the woolly aphis the most
destructive, as it works on the stems and
roots of all seeded fruits causing the root to
knot or gall, as shown in Fig. a. This
checks the growth of the tree. Be careful in
buying young trees not to get infected trees.
When working on the stem they cause the
place where they are working to become en-
larged. ‘This is generally where a limb has
oO
oD
been cut, or where there is a bruised place on
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 12g
Figure 14.
the tree. These cover themselves with a
secretion resembling fine cotton fiber which
conceal them more or less completely. Some
become winged as shown in Fig. @ page 130.
130 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
Figure 15.
PURPLE. APHIS:
The Purple Aphis comes next in my opin-
ion to the woolly aphis, as where they are bad
the apple tree’s fruit will not mature, but
wither up and hang all winter on the tree.
The other thirty varieties feed on trees and
plants, and the following is the list of trees
and plants upon which they feed:
The Prune Aphis, Rosebush Aphis,
Wild Plum Aphis, Currant Aphis,
Peach Aphis, Honeysuckle Aphis,
Cherry Aphis, Holly Hock Aphis,
American Elm Aphis, Golden Rod Aphis,
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 131
Box Elder Aphis, Old Man Aphis,
Philbert Aphis, Sour-Dock Aphis,
Cotton Wood Aphis, Hop Vine Aphis,
Black Locust Aphis, Cabbage Aphis,
Soft Maple Aphis, Willow Aphis,
Catalpa Aphis, Black Waluut Aphis.
The balance feed on plants, and the only
thing that holds them in check is their nat-
ural enemy—the Lady-bug, Syrphus flies,
Lace wing flies and Parasitic flies.
TREATMENT OF APHIS.
Where woolly aphis is working on the root
of a tree you dissolve % lb. of Lye in 4
galions of water, dig the dirt away from the
root next to the stem, and pour the solution
around the roots of the tree, by wrapping
a stalk of long yreen tobacco around the stem
of the tree in the spring, the Aphis will not
come up. ‘lo eradicate the Aphis working
on the foliage, use formula number two.
Wherever Aphis are found working on a
tree you will see an abundance of ants, as
they feed on the honey-due and fight the
natural enemies of the Aphis away. Ants
can be eradicated by punching holes in the
mound and nest and inserting about a table-
spoon of bi-sulphide of carbon in each hole.
Fill the hole with earth. Caution must be
used with this remedy as it is explosive.
132 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
THE COCCINELUIDAE.
(Natural enemies of the aphis, for whose description
J am again indebted to Smith’s Economic Entomology. )
The next family meriting attention from
its economic interest 1s the Coccinellidae, or,
as the species are commonly called, ‘‘lady
bugs’”’ or ‘‘lady birds.’’ Scientifically these
insects are distinguished by having the tarsi
three-jointed only; but practically they are
recognized by their oval or round form—al-
ways convex, sometimes almost henispherti-
cal, and by their colors, which are either
of some shade of red with black spots and
markings, or black with red or yellow spots.
‘he species are never large, sometimes very
small; but in alinost all cases are predaceous,
their prey consisting of chiefly plant lice or
scale insects.
The larva, which have the same feeding
habits, are usually fusiform, with a small
head and quite long legs. ‘They are often
prettily colored, sometimes with spiny warts
or processes, and may be seen running about
wherever plant lice abound. Patches of fif-
teen to forty of the yellow eggs laid by the
beetles are often seen in abundance on in-
fected plants.
The species of Megilla and Hippoda-
mia are more oval and less couvex than
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 133
usual, and some of them have been found
feeding on pollen or even seeds when their
natural prey was scarce; yet I have observed
these same species doing yeoman’s work in
the destruction of plant lice on melon vines,
The general Adalia and Coccinella contain
the more hemispherical types, and among
the most common are the ‘‘g-spotted lady
bird,’’? Coccinella g-notata, which is one of
the largest species, and the ‘‘2-spotted
lady bird,’’ Adalia Bipuncta, which is the
sinaller, and perhaps more frequently seen in
the gardens and even homes. Among the
largest of our forms is the ‘‘15-spotted lady
bird,’’? Anatis 15-punctata, interesting from
its color variations, ranging from creamy
white with black distinct spots to uniform
mahogany brown.
Opening quite a distinct series of species,
which are black with red or yellow spots, is
the ‘‘twice stabbed lady bird,’’? Chilocorus
bivulnerus, in which the larvae is spiny.
This is black, almost hemispherical, with a
somewhat ovate red spot on each wing cover,
and is found throughout the United States.
Its chief food, in the larvae as well as the
adult stage, consists of scale insects, and it is
one of the most effective checks of that kind
134 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
of plant pest, under favorable circumstances
ridding individual trees completely.
We have other similar but smaller species,
sometimes with numerous yellow spots on
the wing covers, and most of them have the
scale eating habit to a greater or less extent.
The species of Pentila are uniformly black
and very small, less in size than most of the
scale insects upon which they prey; but they,
as well as their minute spiny larvae, are great
feeders, especially upon the eggs and larvae.
The destructive San Jose scale has no more
persistent, effective enemy than this kind of
lady bird.
The species of Scyinnus are also small,
usually recognizable by their fine pubescent
or hairy clothing and black colors. There is
a tendency to redtipped wings, covers or red
thorax, and these forms also prey largely
upon scales. ‘To this family belong the Aus-
tralian species of Vedalia, Orcus, and Rhizo-
bius, introduced to destroy the also imported
“cottony cushion scale,’? Iceryapurchasi.
The relation of these species has already been
discussed when speaking of the scale.
There are few rules without exceptions,
and so we find sinners among the ‘‘lady
birds’? also—all belonging to the genus
Epilachne. The species are large, hemi-
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 135
spherical, and yellow with black spots. The
larvae are also yellow, elongate oval, with
long branched spine. E. borealis is the
Northern and Eastern species attacking cu-
cumber, melon, and similar vines, while KE.
corrupta 1s found in the West and South-
west, injuring beans. A curious feature in
E. borealis is the manner in which the adult
marks out a circle at the edge of a leaf and
feeds within it until all usable tissue is ex-
hausted, before proceeding to another place
to repeat the operation.
As these injurious species feed openly in all
stages, they can be reached without trouble
by any of the arsenites.
SYRPHIDS.
Syrphids is often composed of spurred and
branched hair similar to that found in bees,
and in the ‘‘dronefly’’ this character is espe-
cially marked. .
As widely divergent as the flies themselves
are larvae and their feeding habits. In fact,
there is no sort of agreement; and while
some are predaceous, feeding upon plant lice
or other insects, many feed on living or de-
caying vegetable substances, or in the foulest
excrementitious material. Those forms that
most concern the agriculturist are the feeders
on plant lice, and these may be found at
136 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
almost any time during the summer in alimost
every aphid colony, busily engaged in lessen-
ing its numbers. The larvae are easily over-
looked, as they are usually green or yqllowish
in color, like the insect among which they
feed. They are wrinkled and hairy when
exainined with a magnifying glass, soft in
texture, thickened behind, and tapering al-
most to a point at the head which is marked
only by a pair of hooks and a little circular
opening representing the mouth. “They have
no legs and move by extending the body for-
ward as far as possible, then clinging with
the anterior segments to the leaf or twig,
and drawing the balance to meet the head.
Awkwardly as they move, however, their
progress is yet sufficiently rapid for their
purpose. When once a larvae has established
itself in a colony of plant lice, it never stirs
until all in its immediate vicinity are de-
stroyed; it then moves only far enough to
bring into reach additional prey, and so con-
tinues until no more remain.
The female lays her eggs close to, or
actually among, an aphid colony, so that the
larvae finds food ready at hand as soon as it
is hatched. It grasps a plant louse with the
mouth’s part, lifts it from the surface, and
sucks its juices, leaving the creature to strug-
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 137
ele for awhile, helplessly kicking its legs in
mid air. When the juices are exhausted the,
empty shell is dropped and another specimen
is taken. When full grown, the larvae draws
itself up into a humped mass; the outer skins
harden, darkens in color, and forms an ap-
parently solid covering or coarctate pupa, be-
neath which the true or soft pupa of the fly
is formed. Several broods of these predace-
ous flies occur in the course of the season, and
they are among the most important checks
that nature has provided against plant-lice
increase.
THE HEMEROBIIDAE.
The Hemerobiidae, which contains numer-
ous specimens of interest, are all of them
predaceous and beneficial to the farmer.
There are several sub-families, which to-
gether are termed ‘‘lace winged flies,’’ from
their delicate, finely reticulated or netted
wings, which lie flat and are not folded. The
insects are slight, and in the species allied to
Hemerobius the colors are brownish or
smokey. They are less common than the
forms allied to Chrysopa, which are green,
with long antennae and prominent, bright,
yellowish-brown eyes, which have given
them the name ‘‘golden eyed flies’? in some
localities. They are commonly found in
135 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
fields or along the edges of woods, and emit,
when handled, a peculiar sickening odor
which is quite unmistakable when once
known. In the adult stage the insects feed
little or not at all; but the larvae, known as
‘“‘aphis lions,’’ feed almost constantly, their
prey being small, soft bodied insects of all
kinds, aphids or plant lice ranking as special
favorites.
The entire life history of the insect is in-
teresting. The female in oviposing touches
the end of the abdomen to the surface—usu-
ally a leaf—upon which the eggs are to be
laid, and then elevates her body about a
quarter of an inch, emitting at the same time
a viscid thread which hardens on exposure to
the air. At the tip of this the egg is fas-
tened, and we thus get a little grove of eggs
on stilts. This is supposed to insure their
safety from wandering predaceous forms that
might otherwise feed upon them. When the
larvae hatches it climbs down the slender
thread, and attacks and feeds upon the first
suitable specimen it can find—usually a
young plant louse. Now, here is another
peculiarity, 1t does not chew or tear its prey,
but holds it firmly, sucking the juices by
meaus of grooves on the inner side of the
large mandibles which are closed by the
.
Se
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 139
slender maxillae. The larvae grows rapidly,
becoming rather more than a quarter of an
inch in length, narrow, spindle shaped,
pointed at the anal extremity, the head dis-
tinct with prominent sickle shaped mandi-
bles. When full grown, it spins by means
of anal glands, a perfectly spherical, white,
silken cocoon of very dense texture, and
small in proportion to the larvae. It re-
sembles a moderate size pearl in form and
appearance, and when the adult is ready to
emerge, a circular lid is lifted off to give the
matured pupa exit. Comparing the fully
developed insect with the cocoon from which
it issued, the marvel is great that it was ever
packed away in so small a space.
These insects are really of much practical
value, frequenting, as many of them do, tilled
fields and orchards, feeding upon larvae, plant
lice, and similar creatures. ‘Shey become in-
jurious, however, in some parts of California,
where they attack and destroy coocinellid or
lady bird larvae.
Somewhat closely allied in all stages to the
Hemerobiidae are the Myrmeleonidae, or
‘‘ant-lions,’’ but they are larger, with longer
and narrower wings, and clubbed antennae.
As before, the adults are graceful, harmless
creatures, which fly mostly at night, while
140 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
the larvae are predatory, resembling the
‘‘aphis lions,’’ in structure, save that they
are broader and chunkier in appearance.
They are also peculiar in that many of them
capture their pray in pits or traps.
In constructing its trap, the larvae usually
selects a spot of moderately compact fine
sand, and excavates a funnel shaped pit with
sides as steep as the sand will lie. It remains
buried and invisible in a little gallery at one
side of the bottom, 1n wait for any unlucky
creature that may come within reach. Ants
are the most frequent victims from their
wandering habits and a tendency to investi-
gate, a pause at the brink resulting in a shp
of sand and a tumble into the jaws of the en-
emy. Should the ant recover a footing be-
fore reaching the bottom, a shower of sand,
sent by the vigilent larvae below, overwhelms
aud brings it down to its death. When the
juices are exhausted, the empty shell is thrown
out of the pit and it is repaired for other vic-
tims. Sometimes pits are made in sawdust
or friable leaf mould and some make no pits
at all.
The adults are of two rather distinct series;
the first with short antennae which thicken
rather gradually toward the tip, including
Myrmeleo; the second, with long, slender
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE I41
antennae, enlarging suddenly into a flattened
club. The head is larger and the body more
robust, covered with stiff, bristley hair, giv-
ing the insect a fierce appearance. The most
common genus is Ascalaphus, and the larvae
habits are not known, though it is probable,
from what we learn of foreign species, that
they do not build pits or traps. ‘Though in-
teresting the family is of no economic im-
portance.
STRAWBERRY ROOT-BORER.
(Wickson’s California Fruit. )
The larvae of another clear winged moth
(Aegeria impropria), boring into the root of
strawberry plants, found in various portions
of the State, and doing considerable damage,
forcing the growers to resort to replanting
much earlier than would otherwise be neces-
sary. Flooding the vines has a great tend-
ency to kill out the worms, and if the water
was retained, say four or five days during the
winter, all over the plants, doubtless all of
the larvae would be killed.
CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY BORER.
A white worm eating out the central pith
of currant and gooseberry plants—the larvae
of another clear winged moth (Aegeria
tipuliformis). Spraying with whale oil sovp
142 THE FRUIT GROWKER’S GUIDE
after the crop is gathered, pruning out and
burning in the fall of all old wood which can
be spared, will reduce the evil.
THE AGRILUS.
(Smith's Economic Entomology. }
The genus Agrilus contains species differ-
ine from any of those heretofore mentioned
by their slender, cylindrical form, the head
Figure 16,
squarely truncate, or cut off in front, the
elytra much narrowed at tip. As a rule,
these species are dull brownish bronze in color,
the prothorax sometimes brassy or red-bronzed,
aud none is better known than the ‘tred-necked
blackberry borer,’? Agrilus ruficollis, the
author of the ‘‘gouty gall’? on that plan.
The larvain this genus are usually long and
flattened, the segments strongly marked, the
‘head’? not much wider than the body, and the
anal forks distinct, differing in each species.
Returning to the blackberry borer, it is
good practice to cut out all galled canes early
THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE 143
in spring and burn them. ‘Trimiming is done
at this time as a matter of regular cultiva-
tion, and the galls are then easily seen. No
‘‘oalled’’ cane can ever ripen a fair set of
berries, and it might as well be cut out at
once. Another satisfactory method is to cut
off all the new shoots at the surface of the
ground about the end of June. At this time
all of the beetles have laid their eggs, and
the shoots which come up in July cannot be-
come infested. The best results will be ob-
tained by combining both methods. Cutting
the new shoots causes the death of the young
larvae, which are unable to subsist on dead
wood, and being footless are unable to mi-
grate to new stalks.
ANTHONOMUS SIGNATUS.
The A. signatus, or the ‘‘strawberry
weevil,’? which appears as a small, blackish
beetle, with gray pubescence, when the buds
are developing, and lays and egg in each,
afterward puncturing the flower stalk below
the bud so as to check development. The
larva feeds upon the pollen in the unopened
bud, and finds it sufficient to attain its full
growth, changing to a beetle in midsummer.
The insect attacks a number of other flowers
in the same way, not even confining itself to
I44 THE FRUIT GROWER’S GUIDE
one natural family, and its injury to straw-
berries is of a somewhat intermittent charac-
ter, becoming worse for a number of years,
then stopping suddenly for no apparent rea-
son. Only staminate, or pollen bearing’
varieties are attacked, and the Sharpless 1s,
perhaps, the most seriously infested. By
planting chiefly pistillate varieties, the stam-
inate rows may be protected by cheap cover-
ings until the buds are ready to open, and
even if a small crop only is obtained on the
pollenizers, the main crop will be safe with-
out protection. Insecticides have not proved
wmarkedly useful in this case.
SPRAY PUMP
For Hot, Cold or anv
Rind of Mixture
The cylinder is what is known as the
Ram Plunger, made of a solid brass tube
with a closed end, which passes through a
circular hemp etre which adapts it
for pumping hot, cold or any kind of mix-
ture.
The valve and seat are made of ordinary
brass, ground in bevel shape.
Fitted for two strings of hose you can
get up pressure of 200 pounds or more.
Has ivechanical agitator.
We Sell Them in Boise.
THE MEYERS O. K.
lt Lewis & Staver Co,
FAIRBANKS, MORSE & CO.
SALT LAKE CITY BRANCH.
FRUIT SPRAYING
MACHINERY
LL OUR PUMPS HAVE METALLIC
valves and Metallic or Asbestos
plungers. Will pump HOT or cold
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Puuips connected to 2 H. P. Engine on
same base. Can be put in farm wagon.
Larger pumps and engines can be mount-
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our Fruit Spraying Machines sold at
Grand Junction, Colorado, this season.
| Recommended and endorsed by Fruit
Inspectors in Colorado and Idaho,
CALL ON OR ADDRESS
G. TT. INGERSOLL
Room 3, Merino Block. Box 307.
BOISE, IDAHO.
I recommend the Fatrbanks-Morse Pumps for
Fruit Spraying.—B. F. HURST.
J. R. GOOD C. H. ROBERTS J. E, SCHOOLER
GOOD, ROBERTS &
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Real Estate and Investments
PS
BANK OF COMMERCE BUILDING
BOISE, IDAHO
We make a specialty of furnishing in-
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investors aud persons desiring a home in
“Boise the Beautiful,’? ot Boise Valley,
“The Garden of the World.’’
IT am personally acquainted with the above firm,
and take pleasure in recommending them as reliable
gentlemen with whom to do business. —B.F. HURST.
EEE
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To Spray your Trees Properly you will need good
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Also Sulphur, Lime and Salt
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BOISE, IDAHO.
SOLE AGENTS FOR THE
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Guaranteed to be the best pump on the
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BUGGIES AND CARRIAGES.
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Agents for Ellwood Fencing
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John Deere Plows, Harrows and Pulverizers
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Wind Mills, Pumps and Hay Tools
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