I20 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



the deep color and glossiness. They were not treated in any 

 way different, but just the addition of half a pound of nitrate 

 of soda to a tree. I did that to see how small an amount would 

 be noticeable upon the leaves. 



No. 13. How shall we protect our young trees from borers 

 and mice ? 



Mr. Yeaton : One time a fellow came along and said to a 

 neighbor, "Come into the house and have a drink. I have 

 just been making some spruce beer." They went into the cellar 

 together. The whole top of the cistern was open. The fellow 

 that went in walked along and looked in — "Don't the rats ever 

 get into that cistern ?" He says, ''Yes, but we skim them out." 



Question : That is all right for the borers, but tell me how to 

 get the mice? 



Mr. Yeaton : The most practical way, the cheapest, least 

 expensive of anything we have tried is to take some wire screen 

 or common window screen, make a very thin paint, lead and 

 oil, cut the screen the size that we want, and just simply dip 

 them in that lead and oil, and have a wire peg sticking up right 

 over this dish to put them on and let them drip back in. That 

 will last five years, and by that time you will want another job 

 to put more wire on. 



Mr. Gardner: One of the latest recommendations is heavy 

 white paint, paint about eighteen inches or so. 



No. 14. The San Jose scale is getting into our state. Shall 

 we ask legislative protection ? 



Mr. Gardner: I do not know just exactly what that means, 

 whether it means a spray law. 



Mr. Yeaton : That is the idea exactly, whether the state 

 should enact a law that will compel spraying. 



Prof. Hitchings: Mr. Chairman, I don't believe in that sort 

 of measure. I think some of our speakers have already inti- 

 mated here at the meeting that the San Jose scale can be con- 

 trolled and if there is a spot in the state where it has started 

 it is for the Department of Agriculture to get at it and extermi- 

 nate it. I hardly think that the San Jose scale will become a 

 pest here in Maine, to any extent, and the thorough spraying 

 that has been referred to will handle it as well as our oyster 

 shell scale. That is doing more damage than the San Jose scale 

 ever will, I think, in the State of Maine. 



Mr. Gardner: It certainly is. 



