No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 547 



W. H. STOUT, Schuylkill Co.— The season was not favorable for 

 fruit, apples yielded so heavy in 1904 that the trees did not produce 

 many buds and a frost at blossoming time destroyed much of the 

 bloom. 



Scale is playing havoc with peaches particularly and is spreading 

 at an alarming rate, many have it and are not aware of it, until 

 pointed out. 



We had an unusual wet season after June, so that rot and fungoids 

 were prevalent, causing fruit rot, and potato blight, and the ground 

 was evidently too wet for the potato beetle to pupate so none were 

 seen this fall after about August, so there appears a compensating 

 gain with losses sustained. 



Field crops, excepting clover, were good throughout; corn the best 

 in years. 



There are very few apple orchards treated with any care, grain 

 crops being grown, little attention given to care and cultivation, 

 the rotation of grass, corn, oats and wheat being continued some- 

 times manured, and a few hundred pounds of 1-8-3 applied with 

 .grain. The result is moss covered, declining trees with dead 

 branches and once in a great while a crop of inferior fruit. 



The boom in peach tree planting with G or 8 years has exhausted 

 itself and not many engage in it now, most experiments proving 

 failures. To plant trees and trust in the Lord does not meet witfc 

 success in fruit growing. 



J. Q. ATKINSON, Montgomery Co. — My impression is that those 

 who can successfully control the San Jos6 Scale will, in the near 

 future, reap a rich reward for their labors in fruit growing. The lime, 

 sulphur and salt mixture will destroy all scales covered by it. Care- 

 less spraying has been the chief cause of failure. There is no occa- 

 sion to boil the mixture. Lime should be fresh, slaked with boiling 

 water, kept covered and stirred and allowed to stand one and one- 

 half hours. The liquid will then be precisely the same as if boiled, 

 and thus saving one-half of time and fuel. Unless a remedy appears 

 and is applied, or some unforseen change appears in conditions, all 

 fruit trees will succumb to the pest, and in a short time. No new 

 orchards are being planted in this county. There is not very much 

 blight of late. 



H. C. SNAVELY, Lebanon Co.— I combatted the San Jose" Scale 

 for three or four years, and by spraying trees carefully with the lime- 

 sulphur-salt mixture, the pest can be held under control so that 

 trees show vigor and produce good fruit. 



Four years ago when I was abed and trees were not sprayed I lost 

 a number of peach trees. Last spring we failed to spray all of th<- 

 apple orchard because of a failure of force pump to reach me sooner 

 and the forwardness of the season. Well, for results; where the 

 orchard was sprayed the fruit was uniformly fine and the trees vigor- 

 ous with healthy foilage. The unsprayed part, on the whole, brought 

 a lot of fruit inferior in different degrees from fair to worthless, and 

 trees in rather bad condition, due to the ravages of the scale louse. 

 All these trees were sprayed in 1904, but the past summer seems to 

 have been very favorable for the increase of the insect, more so than 

 ever before. The best we can expect to do under existing conditions 

 is to hold the pest under control. 



