THE RENOVATION OF AN OLD ORCHARD. 59 



sap the vitality and life of the trees which finally succumb and die ; 

 95% of all of the old orchards upon Long Island are, today, practi- 

 cally ruined, and the same is becoming true of the southern tier of 

 counties of New York, while in all of the Southern States vast 

 numbers of trees have been destroyed and many are practically 

 worthless from the presence of this insect. The San Jose scale was 

 introduced into the United States more than thirty years ago, on an 

 imported flowering peach tree brought in from China. For several 

 years it slowly spread and was finally discovered by Prof. Comstock 

 of Cornell University, who studied up its history and named it the 

 San Jose Scale. In the illustration shown upon the chart the scale 

 is magnified more than two thousand times, but upon the branches 

 its work may be seen which are here so thickly covered that the 

 bark is invisible. Unless this scale may be successfully controlled 

 the old orchards of our country will in time be destroyed. 



When the San Jose scale gets into our large, high, old apple trees 

 it will be a most difficult problem to save them, hence I am greatly 

 interested in growing another type of tree, know^n as Dwarf and 

 Half-Dwarf trees, and I am planting at the present time trees that 

 are propagated upon what is Icnown as the French or Doucin stocks ; 

 they are a natural crab of France and will grow about sixteen feet 

 high. These may be planted much closer together on good soil, 

 twenty feet apart each way, which will give over one hundred trees 

 to the acre; they may be easily sprayed; the fruit may be thinned; 

 the pruning may be very readily done; and more of high grade 

 fruit, such as is desirable to be sold in boxes may be grown from 

 such trees. 



I am also planting another class known as trees which are pro- 

 pagated upon Paradise roots, a crab grown largely in England, and 

 also in France, but still smaller in size. These will grow to about 

 nine or ten feet in height, and they may be planted even closer 

 together — from eight to ten feet. They may be easily pruned and 

 the fruit, while not so large in quantity is very superior in quality, 

 and they may be interplanted with the half-dwarfs a few years and 

 taken out when the ground is needed for the other trees. I believe 

 there is future value in this class of trees, and upon them we can 

 control any kind of insect that may make its apjiearance. 



There are different methods for treating the San Jose scale; one 



