174 



THE IBRIGATION AGE. 



It is in this same way that the insects and fungi 

 have their effect upon the tree or plant. They cut, 

 bore, split and suck in their endeavor to obtain a liv- 

 ing, but to the great detriment of the trees and plants. 

 Consequently the fruit from such a tree is bound to be 

 stunted, tasteless and nearly worthless. 



Again, we have a class of destroyers, in which are 

 included the codlin moth, curculio, and the like, which 

 prey directly upon the flower and fruit of the tree and 

 pay comparatively little attention to the bark of the 

 tree itself. Here we have the mutilated and wormy 

 apples, which either rot on the trees or drop to the 

 ground and decay. 



A very close inspection of a tree is necessary to 

 discover the first arrivals, also a careful discrimination 

 is necessary to accurately recognize the character of the 

 plague. But if you disco'ver the kind of pest, that is 

 entrenched in one tree in your orchard, generally the 

 same destroyers are inhabiting the trees of the entire 

 orchard. In fighting this invasion, remember that you 

 are not doing it alone. Your State Experiment Sta- 

 tion wants to send you Bulletins they want to give 



than ever. Still some of our growers refuse to spray 

 because an outfit "costs too much." As a rather pe- 

 culiar coincidence, there appears in other pages of this 

 magazine a large ad from a prominent spray pump 

 concern which goes very fully into the subject of cost 

 and result, and we refer you to this ad, without any 

 degree of partiality on our part, simply to allow you 

 to read something which we do not wish to repeat right 

 here. 



Heretofore fruit growing has been rather easy for 

 us of the great southwest, but the immense shipments 

 of new nursey stock and other reasons have caused our 

 virgin trees to become infested with these pests, which, 

 the sooner we start to destroy, the sooner we will rid 

 ourselves of them. We must do this before they make 

 such a determined stand that we cannot eliminate 

 them, and have to stand by and see our great fruit dis- 

 tricts wiped from the map simply because we failed to 

 spray in time. Future fruit growing will not simply 

 be a process of planting the tree and picking the fruit, 

 without any other attention whatever. The fruit grower 

 of the verv near future will have to follow scientific 



Sprayed and Unsprayed Fruit. 



you practical instructions, the result of their exhaustive 

 experiments. These Stations are doing grand work in 

 the suppression of the fruit killers, and if you will co- 

 operate with them they can save' you a lot of experi- 

 menting for yourself. 



All the exhibits of apples at the National Apple 

 Show at Spokane, Wash., last December were sprayed 

 apples. Some of them were non-irrigated, but all were 

 sprayed. This fruit was the occasion for many ex- 

 clamations of delight from enthusiastic fruit men on 

 account of its symmetry, beauty and taste, and many a 

 skeptic who did not believe in spraying was speedily 

 converted into a spraying crank after a visit to the 

 Spokane show. 



Commission men, who buy in great quantities, gen- 

 erally ask if the fruit has been sprayed, and some of 

 them will not even look at unsprayed fruit. Perhaps 

 you have had an experience of your own on this sub- 

 ject. But it is not simply because they want the sprayed 

 fruit. There is more behind the subject than that. 

 There is the great general public which wants good 

 fruit, demands good fruit and will have nothing but 

 good fruit, even if it has to pay more for it. And here 

 is where the profits of the fruit grower commence. He 

 has a steady market, demanding more than he can hope 

 to produce, with every year seeing a new demand bigger 



methods if he expects to get marketable fruit, and chief 

 among these methods will be the problem of spraying, 

 which, when carefully looked into, becomes a surpris- 

 ingly easy problem if a careful system is followed. But 

 it will be a case of competition between the insects and 

 the growers, and the sooner the magic line is drawn so 

 the insects cannot enter, the sooner you will find that 

 less work is necessary to keep them out, and then and 

 perhaps then only will the great value of spraying be 

 brought home to you in a most forcible manner be- 

 cause it applied to yourself. 



WEISER IDAHO. 



Winter has gone and the Weiser country has had 

 its usual mild and pleasant winter ; the coldest weather 

 has been 5 degrees above zero, and there have been no 

 severe storms or blizzards, as these are unknown. 



And now it is pleasing for the people of Weiser to 

 note the progress of industry and the many things that 

 promise much for the development of our many re- 

 sources and to add greatly to our wealth and popula- 

 tion. Without a doubt this will be the most prosperous 

 year ever known in this section. 



The Idaho-Oregon Light and Power Company has 



