Sketch of Fruit-Growing in Pacific Northwest. 185 



1)1 anted. If it is infested with dangerous insects or diseases, it is destroyed or 

 disinfected by tlie inspector, and tlie " cost of tliis operation is charged to the 

 nurserymen. If lie refuses to pay this, his license is revoked. 



The working out of this law has not been entirely satisfactory. A great deal 

 of nursery stock, infested with San Jose scale, woolly aphis, crown gall, peach 

 horer, pear blight and other troubles, has come into the Northwest from the 

 East, and mtich of this stock has been planted. A few lots of infested stock 

 have been condemned and destroyed, but undoubtedly a very small proportion of the 

 infested stock received has been detected No doubt this nursery stock inspection 

 has done much to prevent the introduction of orchard pests here and there, but 

 it has not and could not keep the Northwest free from them. Practically all of 

 the common insects and diseases of eastern orchards are now found in the North- 

 west. Stringent laws have failed to keep them out. The responsibility for their 

 control now falls on the shoulders of the individual growers themselves ; and 

 this is where it always does fall, in spite of mandatory statutes. Unless they are 

 enough alive to their own interests to take every measure necessary to protect 

 themselves from loss, stringent laws avail little. 



As would be naturally expected, the humid climate of the Coast Region is 

 favorable for the growth of fungous diseases. Apple and pear scab and brown- 

 rot are serious. Bitter-rot is just appearing. Careful spraying keeps these dis- 

 eases in check, but the frequent rains in the early part of the season make spray- 

 ing less efficient and more expensive than in inland orchards. The russeting of 

 fruit from spraying is also very common in this wet climate. A root-rot, due to 

 the mushroom Agaricus mellcus has caused considerable damage to the fruit trees 

 in the Coast Region, particularly to prunes. The New York apple-canker is 

 found in old and neglected orchards ; also a somewhat similar disease, known 

 only in the Northwest, called the dead spot apple-canker. This appears as 

 small sunken areas of dead bark, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, which are often so nu- 

 merous as to girdle the trunks or scaffold limbs of young trees. Painting with Bor- 

 deaux paint, wrapping the trunks with building paper or burlap, and top-working 

 on the more resistant varieties, are the most satisfactory methods of controlling 

 it. The Coast Region is peculiarly affected with fungous diseases, of which these 

 are but a few of the most serious. This will always be a serious hindrance to 

 commercial orcharding west of the Cascade Mountains. 



Coast Region orchards are not seriously infested with insects. The codling 

 moth is easily controlled. The San Jose Scale is common, and is easily kept 

 down with the lime-sulphur-salt spray. During all of these years, when it has 

 been claimed that this spray could not be as effective in the East as in California 

 because of the wetter climate, these Coast Region fruit-growers have been using 

 it with invariable success, in spite of their 30 to 60 inches of rainfall. At first the 

 tendency there, as it now appears to be in the East, was to give this spray pleni- 

 potentiary powers against all the insect pests and disease of fruit trees. The 

 Washington State Board of Horticulture even recommended that all orchards be 

 sprayed with it every year from the time of planting, whether they had the scale 

 in them or not, simply as an insurance and general tonic. Of course this was 

 soon found to be impracticable, and the lime-sulphur-salt spray has nov,- fallen 

 into its proper place as a specific for the San Jose scale and for that only — not as 

 a general cure-all. 



The Inland Valley fruit-growers have practically no trouble with fungous dis- 

 eases because of their very dry climate, but are greviously tormented with 

 insects, especially the codling moth and peach tree borer. During the past few 

 years the codling moth has wrought havoc in these valleys. But a few years ago 

 there were no wormy apples in the Inland Valleys. Now, at least 90 per cent of 

 the orchards in this region have codling moth in them. There are several broods 

 each season, and the broods overlap, so that it is a continuous fight between the 

 fruitgrower and the codling moth from the fall of the blossoms until the last of 

 August. In the Northwest, at least, the codling moth is a far more serious 

 orchard pest than the San Jose scale. Some of the best growers are able to save 



