118 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Floral Kdttloo. 



7&..ijs>. &-^^^^. jipm^r 



orchard, it wouid paj' to put in a 

 larger quantity of poison than usual 

 in the last fipray. 



i.ci ijci^ijuia. Past President of the Quebec Fruit Growers' Society, among the cherry 

 trees which ibloom at the Olta Agricultural Institute, Olta, Que. 



Two Fruit Pests to Watch For* 



G. E. Sanders, Entomological Division, Annapolis Royal, N.S. 



LAST year I warned the fruit grow- 

 ers of Nova Scotia of a wide- 

 spread outbreak of Canker 

 worm, which would damage many orch- 

 ards in the spring of 1916 — that warn- 

 ing was based on the reports of our 

 brown tail moth inspectors. This year, 

 reports from the same men say that the 

 infestation is increasing, and that a 

 great aniovmt of damage will be done 

 this spring. Some few owners have al- 

 ready applied tanglefoot bands. Where 

 these bands were not applied very 

 thorough spraying in 1916 is all that 

 can now be depended upon to control 

 Canker Worm. If you saw any number 

 of light gcey moths about the trunks 

 of youi' trees last November you can 

 depend upon it tiiat they w.'U eat m.ore 

 or less of the leaves from your trees 

 this spring, and cause you some loss. 



In regavd to pprajing for Canker 

 Worm, we, of course, all know what a 

 hard insect it is To poison. When more 

 than half grown it apparently thrives 

 en arsenic, so in order to control it we 

 must have the leaves thoroi'ghly coated 

 with poison when it emerges from the 

 egg and begins feeding, lov it is then 

 comparatively easj to kill. Most of the 

 Canker Worms emerge about five days 

 before the blossoms show pink, so* if 

 your orchard is infested put on the 

 pink bud or second spray a couple of 

 days earlier than usual, or else retard 

 your semi-dormant or first spray until 

 the leaf is as large as a twenty-five cent 

 piece, using in both &pra\s & larger 

 quantity of poison thnn usual. 



The present outbreak is wide, cover- 

 ing the whole Annapolis "Valley, and in 



•Extract from a paper read at the last an- 

 nual convention of the Nova Scotia Fruit 

 Growers' Association. 



a general way only the orchards that 

 have been heavily sprayed for the past 

 two years are in any way free from 

 them. 



Tussock Moth. 



We are now on the eve of another 

 outbreak also of Tussock Moths. In- 

 spection has shown this outbreak to be 

 widespread, probably heavier in the 

 West end ot the Annapolis A'' alley than 

 fn the east. The Tu.«sock Moth Avas 

 particvilarly bad in the east, end of the 

 valley in 1906; the next outbreak in 

 1912 did not affect the valley so much. 

 This present outbreak will damage a 

 few orchards in 1916, but will not 

 reach its height until 19:i7. In one 

 orchard this year I found a large 

 amount of fruit disfigured by the feed- 

 ing of the larvae. The injury might, at 

 first glance, be mistaken for that of the 

 I'ruit Worm, but the feedrng is done 

 later and does not heal out so per- 

 fectly. The app'io is seldon- deformed, 

 the edge of the eaten r.reas Lre irregu- 

 lai, often ;jxtending irregularly over 

 half of the apple. 



The eggs of the Tussock Moth were 

 deposited by the female about August 

 30, about 150 eggs in a cluster, on the 

 old pupa ca.v-, anA covered with a f'-o^t- 

 iiig or froth to protect them. They n.ay 

 I'c found on any part of toe tree, usu- 

 ally on the fruit spurs of the apple. The 

 young larvae will emerge daring the 

 last week .,f June am' feed for two ov 

 tbree M-eeks on apple leaves, iater feed- 

 ing on the fruit to a certain extent. In 

 order to control Tussock Moth we must 

 put poison into our last summer spray, 

 or that going on during the last week 

 of June. If the eggs of the Tussock 

 Moth are in any way numerous in an 



Dusting Fruit Trees 



1.1. JohiiHon, Duininion Fruit Cominiseioner, 

 Ottawa 



I was much impressed v.ith the ad- 

 dress delivered on '•Du^•ing Fruit 

 Trees" by I'rofcssor Reddl.k of Cor- 

 nell Agricultural College, before the 

 New York Iruit Growers' ..\ssociation 

 this year. Professor Reddick stated 

 that after five year;) experimenting 

 Avith the dusting of fruit trees for scab 

 and insects affecting the fruit and foli- 

 age, iij was convinced that as good re- 

 sults could be obtained, as by spray- 

 ing the trees with liquid sprays. The 

 expense of treating an orchard in this 

 way is about equal to that of the com- 

 mon method of spraying. Two men 

 and one horse can dust thirty acres a 

 day of full growii Baldwin trees. In 

 this way a great saving of time is 

 effected, be&ides getting the poison on 

 the tree at just the proper time. 



Dusting machines can be attached to 

 ' an ordinary spray pump engine and are 

 offered by many manufacturers at 

 prices ranging from $25 to $120. Up 

 to the present I understand that they 

 have not been able to produce a dust 

 that would be of sufficient strength to 

 destroy Sau Jose scale or Oyster Shell 

 scale, but Professor Reddick intimated 

 that lie hoped to obt.-iin a dust which 

 would be equal to such demands. 



The material used in dusting is, I un- 

 derstand, composed of sulphur, arsen- 

 ate of lead and gypsum, which is 

 ground into a line dust that will pass 

 'hrougit a two hundred mesh sieve. 

 This mixtuj-e is blov.i' out through a 

 pipe and float.-; away like smoke 

 through the air, and ii' applied on the 

 Avind f.ide of a tree will thoroughly 

 cover it. 



It was the general impression among 

 the fr'iit growers at the New York con- \ 

 ventioii that the dustmg of orchards 

 may in time do away with the liquid 

 spraying of trees, particularly in orch- 

 ards not aifected witn scale. I would, 

 however, atvise the fruit growers of 

 Canada that they sticl; to tlie old and 

 thoroughly tried sprays, until our 

 Canadian Experiment Stations have 

 proved that dusting is satisfactory un- 

 der all climatic conditions. 



Color is the greatest need of the 

 apple grower. In order to get this, you 

 must prune so as to let the sun, which 

 gives color, into all parts of the tree. 

 The later cultivation is kept up the less 

 color you will have. 



One of the best ways to control in- 

 sects on strawberries is by rotation of 

 crops and clean cultivation. 



