No. 6 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 553 



buds develop in, just as small ({uauUty as will sullice to covei- the 

 tree without dripping or running down to the roots has been safely 

 and successfully used, on apple, plum, pear and peach trees. 



Some report injury on peach trees and some on the pear fruit 

 buds, showing the necessity of great caution in the use of crude 

 petroleum. Orchardists who have used petroleum for three succes- 

 sive years complain that while they have succeeded in keeping the 

 scale in subjection, yet the bark of their trees has a thickened, corky 

 and spongy appearance and the trees are oif color. 



The fumigation of orchard trees of large size proved entirely ef- 

 vfective when properly done. A large orchard of peach trees fumi- 

 gated in 1902 was free from scale in 1903, except in the portions of 

 the orchard that were not fumigated. This suggests the importance 

 of fumigating nearly everything adjoining that is a host plant of 

 San Jos6 Scale. Fumigation of large trees is expensive, but it prom- 

 ises a satisfactory result if persisted in where surroundings are clean. 



A large number of trees and orchards have been treated this year 

 with different formulas of lime-sulphur-salt, to which have been 

 added sometimes a quantity of copper sulphate. Very satisfactory 

 results have been secured wherever thorough spraying has been 

 done with the foregoing, especially, lime-sulphur-salt. Scales have 

 been generally destroyed. No injury appeared in any varieties of 

 trees, not even the peach. This mixture has the further merit of 

 being a fungicide having reduced the apple scab and wholly checking 

 leaf curl of the peach. 



The lime-sulphur-salt solution has the merit of cheapness both in 

 original cost, disposition to remain long on the trees, and further 

 and more important is the fact that spraying may be begun early in 

 the winter and continued on any suitable day until the buds begin 

 to open in the spring. 



The advantage is apparent to any orchardist who has sprayed in 

 high winds, lost his work because of spring rains and dragged his 

 teams and wagons through mud. With a mixture of such a nature 

 as will serve its purpose, that can be applied when the trees are 

 dry, on a still day at a season of the year when there is plenty of 

 time to do all the spraying carefully and cheaply, we feel that a 

 great advance has been made in the problem of control of San Jos6 

 Scale in the orchards. 



The locations in the Slate that offer the greatest obstacles to the 

 eradication of scale are in the suburbs of our cities, where a small 

 section or area may be infested. This area is cut into small lots, 

 the several owners are engaged in many different occupations and 

 are difficult to find at their houses where an explanation can be 

 made of the trouble; they are slow to adopt any method suggested 

 for a remedy and persist in having nothing destroj^ed. 

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