88 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



barn. In some instances the attendance has amounted to hundreds. 

 The visitors have gone home and practiced the methods of the dem- 

 onstrator, and have afterwards reported efl&cient results in pest 

 suppression. 



As this is the fundamental purpose of the demonstrations we aire 

 gratified to know that such results follow. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the owner of the demonstration 

 orchard is required to furnish his own material and apparatus, and 

 transport and board the demonstrators, the demand for these dem- 

 onstration orchards is increasing continuously. However, as they 

 are solely for the purpose of reaching the greatest number of peo- 

 ple possible in a practical means of demonstration, we must limit 

 such orchards to regions where it is impossible for people to reach 

 other demonstrations with ease. 



The demonstrator does real work when present in the demonstra- 

 tion orchard, and does not stop with merely giving theoretical sug- 

 gestions or directions. He makes the spray materials, and fixes up 

 the spray pump to show how connections should be made, and how 

 the hose is to be repaired and the nozzle adjusted. He prunes trees 

 from small to large, because pruning is necessary in good fruit pro- 

 duction, and is thus a part of his essential service. The pruning, of 

 course, is always done before spraying. He sprays trees, showing 

 how to make and apply the material to obtain the best results. 



In many cases the results have indeed been remarkable. At the 

 Huntingdon Reformatory, for example, the Economic Zoologist was 

 present at a meeting in the orchard to study the results of proper 

 methods of pruning and spraying, when a large crowd of visiting 

 men and women walked carefully through the orchard searching for 

 wormy or defective apples, and failed to find two such fruits in each 

 one hundred specimens examined. In other words, the results of 

 spraying, with an ordinary barrel pump, were more than ninety- 

 eight per cent, perfect fruits. 



Similar results were found in orchards in Berks county, at the 

 Berks County Almshouse, at Shillington, where similar demonstra- 

 tions were given. Unfortunately as the management of these orch- 

 ards changed hands, they were withdrawn from the demonstration 

 service, and we are informed that they afterwards perished from 

 the effects of pests. 



There can be no doubt whatever of the efficiency of the demon- 

 stration service in the specific work that is legally authorized for 

 the suppression of pests. In every county of Pennsylvania there 

 are now dozens of fruit growers who recognize this fact, and who 

 would be unwilling to see the work suspended in their respective 

 regions. This service has done more than any other to insure the 

 great improvement increase in the quality and quantity of Pennsyl- 

 vania fruits. 



We thought at one time that after two or three years it would 

 not be necessary to continue the orchard demonstration work, be- 

 cause the citizens would not need it, nnd consequently would not de- 

 sire it; but the learner is always ambitious for more, and the prac- 

 tical orchard grower is the most interested learner of all, because 

 he can soon be taught the benefits of new and improved methods in 

 producing fruits of quality that sell better than those formerly pro- 

 duced by him. 



