100 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



While a considerable amonnt of orchard inspection was done in other 

 counties, it was confined particularly to Berrien, Van Buren. Allegan, 

 Ottawa, Kent, Muskegon and Oceana counties. As the ^'little peach" 

 liad destroyed thousands of trees in western Allegan county, a special 

 deputy, Mr. H. G. Welch of Douglas, was appointed to co-operate with 

 the local yellows commissioners in the inspection of the orchards in 

 his township. Special attention was paid to a tract containing some 

 seven square miles, south of the village of Douglas. The peach orchards 

 upon this area are somewhat isolated from the other peach orchards of 

 the vicinity and an endeavor was made to ascertain what the effect 

 upon the spread of the disease would be if all infected trees were 

 prom])tly removed.' The Bureau of Plant Industry of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture had been for several yeai*s studying this disease 

 and asked to be allowed, to co-operate in the experiment. As they fur- 

 nished one or two observers, it materially aided in carrying out the 

 work and lessened the expense to a marked degree. The orchards in 

 the tract refeiTed to above were gone over three times during the season 

 and every tree which showed any signs of the presence of the disease 

 was at once destroyed by the owners who gladly co-operated in the 

 work. It is proposed to continue the prompt eradication of all trees 

 aft'ected with this disease upon this tract. By doing this, it is hoped 

 to obtain some light upon the effect of eradicating trees infected with 

 ''little peach." While there have been numerous instances where it has 

 been practiced for a series of years, and where it has seemed to be bene- 

 ficial, there have been few, if any cases, where trees which were attacked 

 by this disease upon large areas have been removed. It is hoped that 

 the experiment will result in material benefit to the parties whose 

 orchards have been infected and that the information secured will be 

 of value to many others. 



In addition to the time spent by Mr. Welch in the orchards in his 

 vicinity, he also visited Muskegon and Oceana counties and after find- 

 ing the "little peach" seriously injuring the trees in many orchards, he 

 interested the local yellows commissioners and not only informed them 

 of the methods of detecting its j^resence but regarding the importance 

 of the prompt removal of the trees. 



While the San Jose scale is far from being generally distributed, it 

 has made its appearance in several places in each of the counties in the 

 southern part of what is known as the "peach belt." Visits to that 

 section showed it to be present in a number of orchards and in many 

 cases the trees were jiractically dead although the owners did not know 

 of the presence of the disease. A large number of orchards in the in- 

 fested sections were examined during the early spring and the work was 

 continued in the vicinity of South Haven and Benton Harbor during 

 the months of May and June. Although only a small per cent of the 

 trees inspected were found to be infested, its presence was detected in 

 a considerable number of orchards and steps were at once taken to pre- 

 vent its further spread. Except in a few instances, the owners of the 

 infested trees merely needed to be informed of the presence of the scale 

 and instructed as to the best method of treating, and in no case was it 

 found necessary to prosecute the owners in order to secure the spray- 

 ing of the trees. 



There are now upon the statute books of Michigan three laws which 



