Commissioner of Agriculture 203 



orchard inspection 



When the inspectors of the Department have opportunity, from 

 time to time, they give their attention to inspections of orchards 

 in various parts of the State with a view to assisting the owners 

 in the control of dangerously injurious insects and fungous dis- 

 eases. Since there is no law requiring orchardists to spray their 

 trees, as is the case in the western states, for the eradication of 

 codling moth and similar insects, our work must be confined to 

 the destructively injurious types. When the San Jose scale ap- 

 peared in 1898, the orchardists themselves were very much 

 alarmed and believed that it would be only a short time before 

 their industry would be exterminated. At that time it was be- 

 •lieved that the only remedy for the control of the scale was to have 

 the trees dug out wherever infection was discovered, and a few 

 orchards were condemned and destroyed. It was at least five years 

 later that an adequate remedy for the control of San Jose scale was 

 found. Formulas used up to that time were more destructive than 

 the scale itself, and it became apparent that something must be 

 done to find a remedy and save the fruit as well as the trees. The 

 Department decided that no more orchard trees should be de- 

 stroyed but that the then so-called lime-sulphur-salt solution should 

 be used, if necessary, under compulsory orders of the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture. Since that time the rapid improvement of 

 insecticides and the remarkable development of spraying apppa- 

 ratus have been sufficient to not only save the trees from the scale 

 insects, but to improve and preserve the fruit from the attacks of 

 minor pests, and the enormous crops of fruit that are grown in 

 this State at the present time indicate that the industry has been 

 saved and that the losses feared by the fruit growers have not been 

 realized. 



. As is well known during recent years the Department has en- 

 deavored through the Bureau of Farm Lands to induce persons 

 to come into the State, or to move into the rural districts, and de- 

 velop the low priced farm lands that are available for agricultural 

 production. On many of these farms there are orchard trees that 

 have been neglected, and, furthermore, one of the inducements 

 offered to settlers on these farms is the favored one of fruit pro- 

 duction. The inspectors of this bureau are frequently called upon 



