THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



conspicuous in some of these orchards, the owners acknowledging that, although they thought 

 they had done good work the first year, they were now able themselves to see that the second 

 year's work was far better done than the first and they would be in a better position again 

 next year to do the work better and more thoroughly. Some fruit growers had sprayed their 

 trees in a perfunctory manner and had done little good. Spraying, to be effective, must be done 

 with the greatest care as to every detail and with the greatest thoroughness, so that every part 

 of the tree may be treated with the application. There are of ccurse difficulties in spraying as 

 well as in every other operation which is worth doing ; not only must the apparatus be of the 

 very best, but the materials must be of the proper kind and mixed in exact proportions. The 

 applications must be made at special seasons of the year, and it will pay fruitgrowers to see to 

 this important operation themselves. 



With regard to a definite remedy. Dr. Fletcher claimed that a definite remedy for 

 the San Jose scale had already been given to the country. There was nothing par- 

 ticularly new as to methods of work nor which could not be found by everyone in the 

 report of the Inspector of San Jose scale, which was available for all who would ask for it 

 from Mr. Dryden's department. This was published last spring, and was a most valuable re- 

 port. It was very regrettable that so few people who owned orchards seemed to be aware of 

 its contents, or there would not be so many enquiries for a definite remedy when the good 

 results given in that report showed that paying crops could be grown in orchards infested with 

 the San Jose scale if they would regularly apply the remedies which were recommended by Mr. 

 Fisher. In passing recently through infested areas, the fact was borne in upon him that if trees 

 were treated every year, either with the whale-oil soap solution or the crude petroleum applica- 

 tion, or, where the size of the trees would allow of it, if they were fumigated every year, paying 

 crops could be grown, and he believed that the trees would year by year become freer from this 

 pernicious enemy. Where trees had been neglected for only a single year, they had become 

 coated with the scale so as to be almost or quite as bad as they were before they were treated. 



The three remedies which the speaker claimed were definite practical remedies, were as 

 follows : 



(1) Whale-oil soap. This is a potash fish oil soap which can be purchased of good quality of 

 some Canadian firms, of W.H.Owen of Catawba Island, Ohio, and of Good & Co. of Philadelphia, 

 or it can be made with care and with a great deal of trouble by a private individual. To be 

 efl^ective, this mixture must be made of the strength of two and one-half pounds of whale-oil 

 soap to the imperial gallon of water. To dissolve thoroughly, it must be mixed with hot water 

 and is best applied just before the buds burst in the spring. Although, as a general statement, 

 orchards treated with this soap mixture were not so free of the scale as those which had been 

 treated with crude petroleum, still at the same time it was a fact that the two cleanest of those 

 orchards lately examined which at one time had been infested and had been subsequently to a 

 certain measure cleaned up, had been brought to their present good condition by the use of 

 whale-oil soap. There were no very bad trees in these two orchards and scales could only be 

 found with difficulty. 



For peach trees this remedy is decidedly the safest to use. Its only drawback is the cost 

 of the material. In large quantities it can be purchased, or made, for about 3^ cents a pound, 

 and of the strength above advised it would require one and a half gallons of mixture containing 

 3j pounds of soap to an average size full-grown peach tree, making about 12 cents for material 

 to each tree. The great advantage is that there is no danger of injuring the trees, and, further 

 than this, the amount of potash in the soap makes it a decidedly beneficial application 

 as a fertilizer. 



(2) Crude petroleum. This mineral oil is decidedly more fatal in its eflfects both upon the scale 

 insects and upon the trees. There are some matters connected with the effect of crude oil upon 

 various fruit trees which still require elucidation, but both Prof. Webster and Mr. Fisher are 



