Report of State Board of Horticulture. 55 



Curl leaf on the peach trees last spring caused considerable 

 annoyance and loss to the fruit growers of this section, only 

 the very hardiest varieties having anything like a full crop. A 

 thorough application of bordeaux mixture, before the buds 

 open, will be found to prevent this disease. For several years 

 I have added three pounds of blue vitriol to every fifty gallons 

 of the sulphur, salt and lime solution when spraying for the 

 scale, with very beneficent results. This spring, having 

 omitted it, my peach trees were considerably infested with 

 this fungus. This mode will also be found much cheaper 

 than to make two separate sprayings, one for scale and the 

 other for curl leaf. 



The codling moth I find is the arch enemy of the apple 

 grower, and does more damage than any other insect or pest 

 in the vocabulary of the spray calendar, unless vigorous 

 means are employed to keep it in check. Nor does this 

 intrepid insect confine its ravages to the apple alone, but 

 shows a decided inclination for pear meat. Serious though 

 the ravages of this insect are when allowed full and undis- 

 turbed sway in an orchard, the spray pump here too is the 

 victor when loaded with the arsenite of soda solution and in 

 the hands of a resolute orchardist. It is gratifying to note 

 that where the directions given in the Spray Calendar, issued 

 by the State Board of Horticulture, are carefully followed, the 

 codling moth becomes conspicuous by its absence. That it 

 pays to spray systematically, intelligently, and persistently, 

 can be answered most efi'ectively by those who have been 

 spraying their orchards for a year or more. 



While spraying is necessary to the successful production of 

 fruit, it should be remembered that cultivation and thinning 

 are quite as essential. Neglect in cultivation is a great factor 

 in preventing the development of both tree and fruit. Espe- 

 cially is this true of our dry hill ground, where nothing that 

 can be done adds so much to the growth as thorough cultiva- 

 tion. Here where we cannot irrigate, and where the rainfall 

 amounts to very little in the summer, we must rely entirely 

 on the cultivator to retain moisture, and to accomplish this it 

 is necessary that the ground should be stirred regularly at 

 intervals of ten days to two weeks. Too much stress can not 

 be brought to bear on this subject of cultivation. 



The practice of thinning is regarded by some as a material 

 loss, Avhereas the opposite is the case, for by removing part of 

 the fruit, the nourishment that they would have consumed is 



