40 



as to its value. Last winter, in order to straighten out certain vexed 

 points, a series of experiments had been instituted by the department. 

 Several different orchards had been used, embracing trees in different 

 stages of growth and in different conditions. These had been sprayed 

 with oil, with the lime, sulphur, and salt wash, and various other mix- 

 tures. A few points had l^een cleared up, but the results of these 

 experiments had raised numerous other points, so that on the whole, 

 from his standpoint, he had not been much enlightened by the tests. 

 In Georgia at the present time the question is not what is the best 

 general treatment for the San Jose scale, l)ut what is the best treat- 

 ment for any particular orchard, and the conditions in every orchard 

 arc different. In the experiment work last winter two orchards had 

 been used, one of which was two 3^ears old, containing large trees for 

 their age, healthy and thoroughly infested with the scale. The other 

 was an orchard of 4-year-old trees, healthy, rather mature, and, 

 if anything, worse infested with scale than those of the younger 

 orchard. The experiments were duplicated on these two orchards, 

 which were situated about half a mile apart, the soil and weather con- 

 ditions lieing practically the same. Frequently the same insecticide 

 had been applied to the respective orchards on the same date and b}^ 

 the same hands. A treatment that had been perfectly successful in the 

 older orchard was anything but successful on the young trees. For 

 instance, 20 per cent petroleum in one application on the older trees 

 was very effective in killing the scale, and in August and September 

 there were ^jractically no scales to be found on those trees. In the 

 younger orchard, however, while it killed probabl}" as many of the 

 scale, }■ et, owing to the healthful condition of those trees, every young 

 scale that hatched and settled down seemed to be successful and in 

 due time gave birth to young. Thus in the fall in this orchard there 

 were trees practically dead with the scale where hardly a Vixe scale 

 could be found in the spring. In the younger orchard there were 

 half a dozen different vai'ieties of peaches. On some varieties the 

 scale was killed and in August they were practicall}^ free, whiJe, with 

 the same treatment in every respect, other varieties were badly infested 

 with the scale. There were fully ten times as much scale on some 

 varieties as on others. He considered it important in treating the 

 San Jose scale to get first of all a knowledge of the condition of the 

 tree as affecting the health of the scale. He considered it necessary 

 to know, when advice was asked concerning treatment for any given 

 orchard, what the condition of the orchard was. He considered that 

 perhaps 20 per cent oil would be satisfactory or not, depending on 

 the age and condition of the trees. In his opinion this was one reason 

 why the results with oil had varied so much. 



The present winter the lime, sulphur, and salt wash had been recom- 

 mended largely, although with certain reservations, and he wanted to 

 know if any who had experimented with it had found it unsatisfactory. 



