Safety First in Tree Planting 



By Perley Spaulding and Carl Hartley 



THE city man of to-day who buys a good apple won- 

 ders why it costs more than an orange. He used 

 to buy apples for a fraction of their present price. 

 He never can realize all of the reasons for this high cost 

 until he visits a commercial apple orchard and sees the 

 expensive spraying outfits and the hundreds of gallons of 

 costly fungicides and insecticides with which the trees are 

 sprayed during the early part of each season in order 

 to protect the fruit from parasites. The amateur who 

 tries to raise good fruit, or, in fact, any highly specialized 

 crop, often is bewildered, if not beaten, by the variety 

 of pests which attack his crops, the multiplicity of opera- 

 tions necessary to prevent or combat them, and the entire 

 lack of efficient control methods for some of them. A 

 very large part of the high price of food products is due 

 either to the losses caused by insects and fungi, or to the 

 expensive measures needed to prevent their attack. 



This condition has valuable lessons for people engaged 

 in other lines of work. The experience of the farmer 

 will be of value for the tree planter if he will, but read 

 the handwriting on the wall and take heed thereto. Our 

 forest trees are not now attacked by any such array of 

 destructive pests as are cultivated crops. They never will 

 be if we use proper caution now. Carelessness now is 

 certain to result finally in putting the tree planter in much 

 the same condition as are the fruit and truck growers 

 now, and without one-tenth of their opportunity for effec- 

 tive control of established pests. An ounce of preven- 

 tion now will be worth many pounds of cure later. 



The imperative need for preventive measures and 

 the methods of prevention needed will be best understood 

 after a more detailed consideration of the crop disease 

 situation. There 

 have always been 

 diseases of crop 

 plants. Before 

 plant diseases were 

 investigated, and 

 we acquired our 

 present exacting 

 standards as to 

 fruit quality, many 

 cases of parasite 

 injury went un- 

 noticed or unrecog- 

 nized. But we 

 now have more 

 trouble than we 

 used to. Part of 

 this is due to our 

 modern extensive 

 methods. A great 

 part, however 

 064 



From Hureau Plant Industry Bulletin, 263. 



THE ASPARAGUS RUST 



Pield at right, healthy. Field .at left, ruined by asparagus rust, introduced into the United States as 

 a result of the unnecessary importation of plants from Europe. 



probably the greatest part of our increased trouble is due 

 to new parasites. Many of these we would never have 

 had, if our fathers had been properly careful in their 

 importation of plants. As a direct result of their heed- 

 lessness and ignorance of plant diseases we must pay a 

 perpetual tax in the form of higher prices on every- 

 thing we eat. 



Historic Invasions of Parasites 



A list of a few historic invasions of parasites on 

 agricultural plants may not be out of place. 



1. Hollyhock rust. Introduced from Chile. Serious 

 pest here, and has practically exterminated both the wild 

 and cultivated mallows in certain sections of Europe. 



2. Late blight and rot of potatoes. Probably from 

 South America. Reached Europe and United States about 

 1835. Helped cause the great Irish famine, in which 

 thousands of people starved to death. It reappears prac- 

 tically every year. The total annual loss is enormous. 



3. Phylloxera and grape mildew. Both native of 

 America. Devastated the vineyards of France and the 

 Mediterranean about 1855, forcing great numbers of 

 growers to emigrate. For some years they nearly 

 destroyed the wine industry of Europe. 



4. Asparagus rust. European. Reached America in 

 18%. Has driven out of cultivation the most prolific 

 American varieties. 



5. Citrus canker. Philippine. California prevented 

 its entrance by its rigid inspection and quarantine. It 

 has now obtained a foothold in the Gulf States. Florida 

 is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and destroy- 

 ing every tree affected with the canker, in an effort to 



exterminate it. The 

 entire citrus in- 

 dustry of the Gulf 

 region is in great 

 danger, however. 



There have been 

 many such out- 

 breaks. These five 

 are merely striking 

 typical cases. All 

 of these diseases 

 are still present in 

 their new homes, 

 and always will be, 

 with the possible 

 exception of the 

 last. Half a dozen 

 dangerous new 

 parasites have 

 gained entrance in 

 the last ten years. 



