122 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



harm it has caused in Michigan. However, it has been found in twenty or 

 more places in this State, and as it was unnoticed for five or six years in 

 three or four orchards, it spread in each case over several hundred of 

 the trees and actually killed many of them. Where this insect has 

 become scattered in a locality, all admit that it is practically impossible 

 to eradicate it, and the orchards where it has appeared, if the trees are 

 not injured so much that it will be best to destroy them, need to be sprayed 

 at least once each year with some special spraying mixture. These appli- 

 cations are quite expensive and require some skill and care in their 

 preparation and application. If, by using the ounce of prevention in the 

 way of keeping out this pest, we can save hundreds and thousands of 

 pounds in controlling it, the money will be well invested. If we do not 

 fear it, we should at least have a wholesome dread of its appearance in 

 our neighborhood. 



The spraying mixtures that are of a general nature, are the arsenites 

 for the destruction of the biting and chewing insects, and copper sulphate, 

 in some form, for the fungous diseases. Many of the old orchards are 

 infested with canker-worms and tent-caterpillars, which destroy the 

 foliage in the early spring. Some people claim that spraying with 

 arsenites will not control them. This is a mistake as has been shown 

 hundreds of times. Some eight years ago the canker-worms appeared on a 

 few trees in the college orchard, but two or three sprayings checked them 

 and not one has been found since although quite common in neighboring 

 orchards. At various times, I have arranged for co-operative spraying 

 experiments in different sections. Last year work was done in an 

 orchard where the canker-worm had been at work for several seasons, 

 and where the trees had been sprayed with no apparent effect, and the 

 owner declared that spraying did not jjay. In 1901, this orchard was 

 leased, at my suggestion, by a horticultural friend, and was given two 

 thorough sprayings just before and just after the trees blossomed. 

 At the time of the first spraying, the worms were just hatching 

 and the trees were alive with them. After the second appli- 

 cation I examined the trees and could find but a single 

 worm, and this one appeared to have a bad case of stomach 

 ache. Even though there were neither canker-worms nor tent-caterpillars 

 in the orchard, these two application would be desirable for the codling 

 moth, curculio, and various leaf-eating insects. The materials used were 

 white arsenic and Bordeaux mixture. The codling moth has two broods, 

 and the spraying given just after the petals fall, will destroy the first one, 

 but many failures have resulted from attempts to control the second in 

 winter varieties. Many of these failures were due to too few and too early 

 applications. In addition to the three applications made during May and 

 June at least one more will be required, and this should be made about 

 the first of August. To have this effectual, it should be very thorough, so 

 that every fruit will be coated. If this is not secured success will not be 

 obtained. 



While there is a marked difference in varieties few old orchards will 

 give fruit free from apple scab, a fungus which attacks both fruit and 

 foliage. If the weather is dami) at the blossoming time, the fungus may 

 appear on the flower stalks and destroy the entire crop. Later on, it may 



