REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 41 



prune, peach, pear, plum, apple, cliei-ry, except the sour 

 varieties, apricot, nectarine, almond, and quince. Any per- 

 son owning any tree of these varieties should inspect them 

 carefully, at least once a year, for this pest. 



During the last winter I sent out, or personally served, 

 over four hundred notices to spray for scale, authracuose of 

 the apple, and pear l)light ; principally for the former. Lack 

 of time and funds prevented my following up all the cases in 

 time, but the great majority complied with the instructions 

 in a reasonably thorough manner. 



The board's educational work, through the wide dissemi- 

 nation of the fifth biennial report and the spray bulletin, 

 iind the correspondence and personal visits of the members, 

 has been of great value. In the great majority of cases we 

 are met by a gratifj'ing desire for information and an eager 

 interest in our work. 



I have attempted, insofar as possible, to obtain an accurate 

 estimate of the fruit output for the past year, but it is a diffi- 

 cult undertaking; as is well known, even the census bureau, 

 with all the facilities at its command, can scarcely obtain 

 reliable figures ; hence, aside from the prune figures which I 

 liave received direct from the evaporators, the estimate can not 

 be taken as authoritative. The output of dried prunes for my 

 district for this season was approximately two million two hun- 

 <lred thousand and ninety-eight pounds, valued at three cents 

 per pound, or $68,940 ; of merchantable apples, sixty thou- 

 sand boxes at sixty cents per box, or $36,000. The canneries, 

 vinegar factories and cider mills have put up a product 

 valued at $135,000 ; and the value of small fruits and ber- 

 ries, and other fruits not estimated, will foot up fully $200,- 

 000. This latter estimate is an average of several submitted 

 by leading dealers and growers. Thus the total value of the 

 fruit product for my district approximates $439,930. 



While this is a fairly good showing for the season, it is 

 nothing like it should be. Simple neglect of spraying has 

 caused the loss of fully fifty per cent, of the apple crop. Good 

 apples are worth from forty cents to $1.00 per box, but thou- 

 sands of boxes have been fed to the hogs or sold to the cider 

 mills simply because they were wormy, and, hence, not 

 allowed to be sold in the market. A few hundred dollars 

 spent in spraying throughout my district would return sev- 

 eral thousand just in apples saved. 



The action of the board in preventing the sale of wormy 



