PART IX. PESTS AND DISEASES 

 OF PLANTS 



Control of Grasshoppers. 



This cutinty is having trouble with the grasshoppers as are other 

 counties. Would you kindly inform me what I could do to exterminate 

 them on my young orchard? 



The best thing for grasshoppers is to fix up a lot of poison. 

 This is made in the proportion of 40 pounds of bran, 2 pounds of 

 molasses and 5 of arsenic, mixed together as a mash. They will 

 take this wherever they find it, even when nice green leaves are 

 close by, but it has to be kept moist. Grasshoppers can also be 

 reduced by driving a "hopper doser" over ground where they are. 

 This is made somewhat like a Fresno scraper, but is much longer 

 and the bottom is covered with crude oil. When disturbed the 

 hoppers jump up and fall into the oil. Besides the poison, you 

 should also protect the trunk of the tree to prevent the hoppers 

 from climbing up it. This can be done by applying tree tanglefoot, 

 or putting on one of the tree guards that prevent climbing insects 

 from passing up to the leaves. The combination of poison and tree 

 guards will give you about all the protection you need. 



Sunburn and Borers. 



Please state the best remedy for keeping the borer out of young 

 fruit trees. 



Sunburn can be prevented in many ways. The manufactured 

 tree-protectors are good if they are light colored and are kept in 

 place so that the sun does not scald above or below them. Wrapping 

 spirally with narrow strips of burlap, torn from old grain sacks, 

 from the base to the forking of the branches, is also good. A very 

 effective and widely used miethod is to apply a good durable white- 

 wash which may be made of 30 pounds of lime, 4 pounds of tallow 

 and 5 pounds of salt, adding the salt to the water used in slaking 

 the lime, stirring in the tallow while the slaking is in progress and 

 hot. and then adding water to thin the wash so that it will work 

 well with pump or brush. 



Gumming of Prune Trees. 



/ zvrite to ask for information concerning my prune trees. They are 

 from tzt'o to si.v years old and the gum is exuding from them. As I 

 notice the branches dying I cut them out, but this doesn't seem to save 

 the tree. I zvould appreciate any information you can give me. 



This is a pretty hard matter to diagnose from a distance. There 

 is a good probability that the trotible is caused by sunburn, a point 

 you could determine on inspection. Whitewash would be a protec- 



