136 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



found that these spots are the work of this mite. In some 

 localities this pest has gained a strong foothold, and in others 

 it is as yet hardly noticeable. The Phytoptus pyri is a micro- 

 scopic gall mite. It cannot be seen with the naked eye, ex- 

 cept on a piece of clear glass held up to the light, when it 

 appears as a minute speck. It is not nearly as long as the 

 width of a hair. It is found only on the pear, the leaves of 

 which are exclusively its home. It burrows into the pulp of 

 the leaves, making a cave in which it lives and multiplies. A 

 colony will work out an excavation, which becomes a slight 

 puff or dark-colored gall on the leaf, from a speck to an eighth 

 of an inch in size. The mite keeps open a hole on the under 

 side of the leaf for a doorway. The injury to tree is caused 

 by the leaves becoming dried and falling. This mite is sup- 

 posed to desert the leaves after they have fallen, and seek 

 winter quarters upon the tree. It would be a good plan to 

 burn all fallen leaves from affected trees and spray the trees 

 with No. 1 spray as soon as the leaves have dropped. In the 

 summer the mite can be destroyed with powdered sulphur, 

 but it cannot be expected to rid the tree entirely of the mite 

 1)y this means, as there are eggs and young in the caves, 

 which the sulphur does not affect. In California they use a 

 seeder on a wagon for throwing the sulphur on the affected 

 trees. 



Eemedy — Sulphur, lime and salt before the buds swell, fol- 

 lowed by dusting with sulphur when leaves have formed. 



FOR TWIG BORER AND BUD MOTH. 



Spray in the fall, as soon as all the leaves have dropped, 

 with sulphur, lime and salt solution, followed up in the spring, 

 as soon as the buds begin to swell, with the following wash : 

 Sulphate of copper, three pounds ; lime, four pounds ; paris 

 green, four ounces ; water, forty-five gallons ; and, again, 

 with the same wash the latter part of May. 



FOR CLOVER MITE. 



Spray with sulphur, lime and salt in the fall as soon as all 

 the leaves have dropped. 



