9 



Africa, though it attacked a large percentage of the olive scale upon the 

 pepper and other .shade trees when introduced into California, never became 

 established in the commercial orchards outside the towns. 



In the Capitol grounds at Sacramento there is a large patch of citrus trees, 

 which are not disturbed or sprayed; these I found covered with red and 

 yellow scale and also several lecanid scales. While at Sacramento I visited 

 a number of orchards on the American River. The apples are not grown 

 on blight-proof roots as in Australia, but the true Woolly Aphis (Schizoneura 

 lanifjera, Hausm.) does not seem to affect the trees so badly as it does with 

 us : but here the foliage of the apple trees was so badly infested with a 

 green-leaf aphis (Aphis mali, Fab.), that they all looked as if they had been 

 sprayed with dirty oil and it had run down the trunks. Powdery mildew 

 had been very prevalent in all the land along the rivers, and the upper 

 branches of many of the peach tiees were quite bare of leaves. Coming 

 nearer to the town, all the pear orchards looked very unhealthy, with dead 

 branches showing out in most of the trees. This was caused by "pear 

 blight," a mysterious bacterial disease that is spreading all through the pear 

 orchards of California, and I was told that there are 2,000 acVes of what 

 were once valuable pear-trees in the Sacramento Valley dying out from this 

 disease. In southern Texas I afterwards saw orchards in a very bad way 

 from "pear blis-ht," and in other parts of America this very serious disease 

 is becoming only too common. 



This might he very easily introduced into the pear orchards of Australia, 

 as it is very widely spread over the United States. Xo remedy is yet known 

 except cutting back branch by branch as it dies back ; and this, apparently, 

 is only a temporary check. Therefore we should take united action and 

 prohibit all kinds of paarwood, buds, &c., from any country where pear blight 

 i.j recorded. 



At Marysville I saw several very large peach canneries where the labour 

 is all white, and everything is carried along by machinery in a most expedi- 

 tious manner. 



Near by is Yuba Cify, \vhere there are a number of large grape and prune 

 orchards. I visited Mr. Staples' packing-house ; here they were packing and 

 sending away daily from 300 to 400 packages of Thompson's seedless grapes, 

 and expected to keep on packing for nearly six weeks longer. Each package 

 contained 20 lb., valued at 6d. per lb. at that time ; but this price was much 

 higher than the usual ra'e. He also had a gang of men, most of them 

 Chinamen (the best labour in the State for this work, he claimed), curing 

 prunes. At Mr. Onstott's there are 475 acres of raisin grapes, and wh^n 

 his outfit is in full working order, he covers 14 acres with drying-trays. He 

 had an apple orchard of some 35 acres in a very neglected condition, of which 

 he was rather proud, as he said without any spraying or preventatives there 

 were no codling moths in his apples. When I showed him at least a dozen 

 gtubs in a few moments, he said it did not matter, as he got enough apples 

 for his house ! 



At Lodi, another town visited, greit quantities of grapes are grown ; no 

 irrigation is require I, as the subterranean water is within 6 feet of the 

 .surface. About 50,000 acres are under cultivation, half of which are used 

 as table grapes and the other half for wine. Though phylloxera is common 

 in California, resistant stocks are comparatively unused ; the growers consider 

 that the cuttings are so much cheaper, that by the time the disease has 

 reached the killing stage, they can afford to 'dig them out. Acting on 

 instructions from the Victorian Government, I stopped at Fresno, on my road 

 to Los Angeles, to see Mr. Geo. Roeding, who is the American authority on 



