APPLK GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 37 



heading of an orchard. In the case of the two year old tree it is usually 

 headed a certain height in the nursery row, generally higher than is 

 desirable for the on-hard tree, and uniformity of heading is exceedingly 

 difficult to secure. Sometimes such trees when set are denuded of 

 branches, a mere whip being left, hut when this is done they do not 

 make as much lateral growth as the one year old tree, and it may be 

 very difficult to select branches of the right height and properly spaced 

 for the best type of head. 



FREEDOM FROM DISEASE AND INSECT PESTS. 



Thanks to the very careful inspection work in California, under the 

 direction of the county horticultural commissioners, trees are usually 

 quite free from recognizable diseases and insect pests, when they are set. 

 Trees infested with such diseases as crown gall and such insect pests 

 as woolly aphis are seldom planted. Our inspection system, while 

 far from being perfect, has not only been successful in the detection 

 of disease and insect pests, but it has also resulted in greater care 

 being exercised by the grower of nursery trees, that they be clean. It is 

 not always possible for the inspector to detect crown gall in its first 

 Ktages, but the fact that he is always looking for it and destroying trees 

 upon which it is found, has made the nurseryman realize his obligation 

 relative to this trouble, and as a consequence trees are not grown on land 

 after it becomes thoroughly infected with the disease, as they were at one 

 time. This illustration is one of many which might be given to show 

 that tlie tendency nowadays is toward better stock, as far as insect 

 pests and diseases are concerned. It is of the utmost importance for 

 new sections to plant clean trees, as by so doing many years may elapse 

 before some of the very common troubles will find their way into 

 orchards of the section. 



The very great distribution of the woolly aphis is no doubt due largely 

 to the fact that it has been planted with the nursery tree. With our 

 modern methods of inspection and fumigation the chances of living 

 aphids being on the roots when trees are set may and should be reduced 

 to the minimum. Preventive measures of a simple nature may mean 

 freedom from such pests for years, and consequent healthiness of trees, 

 while inattention to such may mean large sums of money and much time 

 expended in spraying, etc.. with the result of possible control by a 

 diminution of the pest, but never eradication. 



The inspection work to secure this freedom from insects and disease 

 should leceive the encouragement of every one interested in fruit grow- 

 ing, not merely because the inspector may he able to detect pests, but 

 also because of the fact that his efforts will mean a greater effort on 

 the part of the nurseryman, which, after all. means more than the 

 inspection after the stock is grown. There are places, to the writer's 

 knowledge, where inspection work is not done, which have been made 

 dumping grounds by unreliable nurserymen for their undesirable stock. 



