BETTER FRUIT 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON— C. I. Lewis, Horticulturist. CorvaUia. 



WASHINGTON — Dr. A. L. Melander. Entomologist: 

 O. M. Morris. Horticulturist ; W. S. Thomber. Horticul- 

 turist, Pullman. 



COLORADO — C. P. Gillette. Director and EntomoloBlst : 

 E. B. House. Chief of Department of Civil and Inigation 

 Engineering. State Agricultural College. Fort Collins. 



ARIZONA — E. P. Taylor. Horticulturist. Tucson. 



WISCONSIN — Dr. E. D. Ball. Director and Entomologist, 

 Madison. 



MONTANA — O. B. Whipple. Horticulturist. Bozeman. 



CALIFORNIA — C. W. Woodwortli. Entomologist. Berke- 

 ley: W. H. Volck. Entomologist. Watsonville; Leon D. 

 Batchelor. Horticulturist. Riverside. 



INDIANA — H. S. Jackson. Pathologist. Lafayette. 



An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Interests 



of Modern, Progressive Fruit Growing 



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Entered as second-class matter April 22, 1918, 



at the PostofBce at Portland, Oregon, under 



the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



Volume XIII 



Portland, Oregon, February 1, 1919 



Number 8 



Why Surrender to the Codling Moth? 



By A. L. Melander, Entomologist, Washington State College, Pullman, Washington 



UNDOUBTEDLY the codling moth 

 has been increasing in destruc- 

 tiveness during the last few 

 years. Even in the best regulated fruit 

 districts the evidences of its work by 

 harvest time are alarming. Well- 

 intentioned growers thereupon make a 

 firm determination to check the pest 

 another year, and with a crop of wormy 

 fruit well in mind barken to the 

 plausible advice to emphasize late appli- 

 cations of spray. The destruction of 

 fruit caused by late worms is a very 

 noticeable and real thing; the few small 

 apples lost early in the season can 

 easily be disregarded, as so much 

 needed thinning. It might be a pretty 

 theory to speculate that extra attention 

 in killing the early worms brings its 

 reward in saving late fruit, but this is 

 still generally regarded as theory, and 

 farmers say that theories have little 

 place for consideration when the fruit 

 crop is at slake. 



And so the man who advises repeated 

 applications of strong arsenical spray 

 in August and September is heard, and 

 the orchardist, glad to postpone some 

 of the drudgery of calyx spraying and 

 forgetting his resolutions about theo- 

 rizing, proceeds to experiment with 

 late applications; and the codling moth 

 has a splendid opportunity to increase 

 its family at the expense of Mr. Fruit- 

 grower. Fruit Inspector C. B. Woods 

 of Yakima computes that the 1918 toll to 

 the codling moth in his valley alone 

 amounted to over $2,000,000, and this 

 valley takes spraying probably as 

 seriously as any district in the world. 

 Something must be wrong. Is it the 

 pump; is it the quality of the poison; 

 is it that the dates for spraying are 

 wrongly computed; is it that the solu- 

 tion is too weak; is it that the applica- 

 tions have averaged too few; or is it 

 the labor problem? 



A few years ago the horticultural 

 press gave much attention to this im- 

 portant pest, and from the experiences, 

 tests, studies, investigations and experi- 

 ments then reported, a system of fight- 

 ing the codling moth was evolved which 

 has not been bettered to date. Briefly 

 the steps involved and the reasons for 

 each are the following; 



1. THE CALYX SPRAYING IS BY FAR 

 THE MOST IMPORTANT APPLICA- 

 TION OF THE SEASON. 



a. Most worms, both early and late, 

 seek to enter the fruit through the 

 calyx end and can be reached only by 

 this spraying. 



b. By checking the first brood it pre- 

 vents the second and third broods from 

 coming into existence and thus auto- 

 matically reduced late infestation. 



c. Paradoxical though it may seem, it 

 is the best treatment to prevent side 

 worms, stings and windfalls at harvest 

 time, but should be followed up by thin- 

 ning the fruit for worms during the 

 time of the first brood. 



d. It is the only application whose 

 effects persists undiminished through 

 the season. 



e. Practically it destroys more worms 

 than all other possible sprayings com- 

 bined, and when properly given has 

 often proved sufficient treatment for 

 the season. 



f. If poorly applied, later sprayings 

 must be depended on and no amount of 

 later spraying can make good the first 

 neglect. 



2. LATE SPRAYINGS ARE ALWAYS 

 DISAPPOINTING. 



a. They are hard to time correctly. 



b. At best they reach only the rela- 

 tively few worms that do not find the 

 calyx end. 



c. They never prevent all stings. 

 Side worms are apt to reject their first 

 nibblings of apple skin and thus un- 

 poisoned enter fruit even heavily 

 sprayed. 



d. It is impossible to give a thorough 

 coating of spray poison to the waxy 

 apple skin; hence some side worminess 

 always results. 



e. Increasing the strength of the 

 spray or the number of applications 

 will not abolish stings and side worms. 



3. THE CALYX SPRAYING MUST BE 

 PROPERLY APPLIED. 



a. The spray outfit must include high 

 pressure (approximately 250 pounds is 

 best), "tower" or elevated straddle, 

 8-foot rod, crook-joint and Clipper type 

 of nozzle. 



b. The spray-gun, disk nozzle, straight 

 bordeaux nozzle or the dust spray will 



not answer. There is no better nozzle 

 for calyx spraying than the large style 

 Clipper with the angle joint. This 

 nozzle should have a bore of one-tenth 

 inch. The smaller hole of some Clipper 

 nozzles will not assure sufficient pene- 

 tration and is too wasteful of time. 



c. Do not use so many nozzles that 

 the pressure drops low. It is a penetra- 

 tion spray that is needed for calyx 

 spraying. If your pump is too small do 

 not grumble if your apples become 

 wormy. 



d. Except for trees just coming into 

 hearing the spraying must be done 

 from a tower or platform sufficiently 

 high to enable the spray to be projected 

 downward into the blossoms. For this 

 purpose a saw-horse straddle fastened 

 above the tank may prove sufficiently 

 convenient. 



Calyx spraying cannot be thoroughly 

 done from the ground. 



e. Every blossom must be squarely 

 hit and soaked with spray into and even 

 through the crown of stamens. 



f. There is no spray better than 

 arsenate of lead, one-half pound of 

 powder or one pound of paste to about 

 forty gallons. 



g. Adding other materials, like lime- 

 sulphur, boredaux, lime, soap or nico- 

 tine, may detract from the effectiveness 

 of arsenate of lead, and is wasteful in 

 that the calyx spray must be copiously 

 applied. 



h. Begin spraying when most of the 

 petals have dropped; not before be- 

 cause then it is more difficult to fill the 

 inner caylx and because of danger to 

 bees. 



i. The spraying must be finished be- 

 fore the calices close up. 



j. A reapplication of this spraying 

 after three or four days is highly ad- 

 visable to catch blossoms not in best 

 receptive condition before, and is worth 

 more than any subsequent spraying that 

 could be given. 



4. COVER SPRAYINGS SHOULD BE 



CORRECTLY DATED. 



a. To date the second spraying, im- 

 mediately following the calyx applica- 

 tions fasten some mosquito netting like 

 an inverted funnel around the trunk of 

 a badly-infested tree, fitting the edges 



Continued on page 33. 



