144 JOURNAL OP ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. i 



growers of the West, wliicli •vvoulcl have caused millions of dollars of 

 loss in ruined orchards. If, on the other hand, he is mistaken in his. 

 conclusions, the publication is most unfortunate, as it will, no doubt, 

 cause a decided reaction against a now highly successful method of 

 spraying and bring consequent financial loss to the fruit industry. 



It might be well to state in this connection that Doctor Headden is- 

 a well known and thoroughly reliable chemist, and there is no reason 

 to doubt the absolute accuracy of any of his chemical findings. He 

 is not, however, a horticulturist or a plant pathologist, and has taken 

 little interest in orcharding, and his conclusion that the trees he found 

 dying or dead in other orchards were affected in the same way as the 

 ones known to have been killed by the soluble arsenic is open to seri- 

 ous question. He places a great deal of weight on the similarity in 

 appearance of the bark and the discoloration of the heart wood, as il- 

 lustrated by his figures, but as far as anyone can discover from the 

 statements of the bulletin, he made no examination of the apparently" 

 healthly trees in these same orchards nor of dead trees in orchards that 

 had not been treated with arsenical sprays. In fact, nowhere in the 

 bulletin can we find a statement that would lead us to believe that 

 he is aware of any cases of trees dying where no arsenical sprays have 

 been used. 



Alkaline Ground Water Killing Trees 



In investigating orchard conditions in Colorado and Utah the writer- 

 has had frequent occasion to study both conditions described by Mr. 

 Whipple. ■ The condition first mentioned, in which there is no prefer- 

 ence for varieties, has destroyed several hundred acres of orchards 

 in Utah and western Colorado, and in every instance where this has 

 been investigated it has been found that the ground water was very 

 close to the surface, or at least came up during some part of the year, 

 and contained a large percentage of alkali. 



In one section, where the greatest loss has occurred, a survey of the 

 region, showing the depth of the ground water, has been made and 

 in every case the worst affected orchards are located in the region 

 where the water is closest to the surface, as shown by this map. Over 

 one half of the orchards in this section had never been sprayed and in 

 others many trees died before they were large enough to bear fruit. 

 In other cases trees are dying from alkali, where the ground water is^ 

 not normally close to the surface but where at certain seasons of the 

 year irrigation on the higher lands brings it up temporarily. 



Where the ground water is constantly close to the surface young 

 trees grow with great vigor until the roots reach this standing water,, 

 and then they gradually become sickly and yellow, the leaves ripen; 



