IN THE ORCHARD. 



375 



enough to back him up in enforcing the act, 

 then no other power need undertake to carry 

 out the act. You nnust have the people with 

 you or you can never make a law a success. 



I do not think the scale has spread very 

 much in the last two years. The period 

 during which it spread the most was during 

 19CX) and 1901, when nothing was being 

 done to hold it in check. In 1899 the de- 

 struction of the trees was discontinued and 

 everything was then for a year or two in an 

 experimental stage. The people were not 

 then alive to the danger and did very little 

 spraying. Many were skeptical about the 

 scale ever killing a tree. This is not to be 

 wondered at, for during the years that the 

 trees were destroyed everything on which a 

 scale could be found was destroyed and 

 there was no evidence of what the scale 

 would do if left to itself. 



The next two years soon convinced those 

 who had scale in their neighborhood of its 

 destructiveness, and then there came a 

 clamor for some remedy, and I do not be- 

 lieve to-day, that in any section where the 

 scale has not practically got everything, 

 that the people are not doing everything in 

 their power to hold it in check. In my 

 neighborhood there are, of course, some 

 careless growers who will not do their work 

 well and do just as little as possible, but 

 still the law is clear and strong, and any 

 person can put the act in force, so that I do 

 not see how the act can be improved. 



, It has been said that the scale is slowly 

 but surely spreading. This is no doubt 

 true to a certain extent, but it must be re- 

 membered that during three years of inac- 

 tion the scale was spr^ding fast, and it 

 always spreads farther than any one would 

 expect or look for. It is only when it has 

 had time to develop that growers become 

 aware of its presence, and they then speak 

 of it as if it had only recently arrived, when 

 such is not the case. I have known in- 

 stances of scale being in an orchard for two 

 or three years, and for some reason or other 

 it did not increase at all, but all at once it 

 became epidemic and spread and multiplied 

 with great rapidity. 



The amendment made in 1902 to the San 

 ^ose Scale Act was, I think, a great im- 

 provement. I have never heard any fault 

 found with the act since the amendment. 

 The only portion of the act which does not 

 seem clear to some municipal councils is 

 sub-section 3 of the amendment, section 4 

 of the act. Some councils have taken the 

 ground that the department undertakes in 

 that sub-section to pay half of the black 

 knot and yellows inspector's time, but this 

 is not the intention of the clauses. The 

 meaning is that the same person may act in 

 both capacities, that is, could be black knot, 

 yellows and San Jose scale inspector. It 

 might be made clear that it was not in- 

 tended to pay half the cost of his time for 

 hunting the black knot and yellows. 



THE CO-OPERATIVE PACKING OF FRUIT 



^"1 



HE more I look into this- matter of 

 cooperation in the packiag of fruit 

 by growers," said Alex. McNeill, chief of 

 the fruit division, a few days ago to The* 

 Horticulturist, " the more I realize how 

 many benefits the system has. A large num- 

 ber of varieties of apples depend for their 

 keeping qualities on the time at which they 

 are picked. For this reason there is no one 



or two periods during the growing season 

 at which it is possible to pick an orchard. 



" The professional packer cannot afford 

 to send a gang to an orchard more than 

 twice, and often only once during a season. 

 The result is he is often forced to gather a 

 considerable quantity of fruit that is either 

 over or under ripe. This means that every 

 seasoM a considerable quantity of fruit is 



