Xo. fi. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 2:59 



Upon the npi)oarance of a coiitajiioiis disease in any fruit reuion 

 of the Slate an investitJ[ation should be made under the direction 

 of the Agricultural Exj)erinient Station of The Pennsylvania State 

 College, by and with the advice of the Department of Agriculture, 

 and for this purpose there should be an appropriation by the Legis- 

 lature of 110,000 per annum. 



PEACH YELLOWS AND SCALE. 



The passage by the Legislature of 1899 of an act to prevent the 

 dissemination of such contagious diseases as yellows, black knot, 

 peach rosette and pear blight, as well as the spreading of the San 

 Jos^ Scale, was a step in the right direction. A grower need but 

 call his neighbor's attention to the existence of the law in order 

 to secure the removal of an infected tree. As to peach yellows, the 

 origin and nature of this disease is still a subject of dispute, but it 

 has been definitely determined that it is an atmospheric disease, 

 communicable by inoculation, and that the eradication and destruc- 

 tion of an infected tree is the only safeguard to prevent the ruin 

 of all peach orchards or trees in the neighborhood in which the 

 disease has appeared. 



The San Jos^ Scale no longer has its terrors. Several sprayings 

 with the whale oil soap solution when the scale is dormant will 

 get rid of the pest. A later discovery, is fumigation by means 

 of hydrocyanic acid, but this is difficult, dangerous and expensive. 

 As to scurfy scales, oyster-shell bark lice and wooly aphis, the ap- 

 plication to the bark of a 10 per cent, kerosene emulsion in June 

 will kill 90 per cent, of the young insects. Another excellent wash 

 for winter or early spring is made by taking fifteen pounds of live 

 lime and slaking it with water, in which two pounds of copper sul- 

 phate have been dissolved; then add about fifty pounds of fine hard- 

 wood ashes. This mixture,- diluted by the addition of fifty gallons 

 of water, should be sprayed on trunks and branches, using a coarse 

 sprayer. This treatment clears off old bark, destroys insect eggs 

 and fungus spores and has a tendency to remove many of the hard 

 scale insects. The effect on the bark is very pronounced. The old- 

 fashioned system of whitewashing the trunks of trees is also recom- 

 mended. It will go a great ways towards destroying the winter 

 quarters of various forms of insects. 



NOMENCLATURE. 



The subject of nomenclature is one of much importance. Tn visits 

 paid to a number of county fairs last fall we found much fruit mis- 

 named. Some well-known varieties of apples, for instance, were 



