15 { UN; 



Vc 



caused by them was scarcely appreciable. At the pi*^|k time, ;it least in 

 the older sections, the fruit grower is compelled to combat insects or fungi, 

 or both, in order to grow marketable crops. 



" This marked change, coming in so short a time and in many cases 

 involving serious loss, has naturally had a discouraging effect. In a few 

 instances this discouragement has even led to the digging up of orchards. 

 The increase in the amount of damage by orchard enemies has been the 

 more depressing because the idea had gained considerable credence that the 

 previous immunity from such loss was due to some special peculiarity of the 

 soil or climate, or both. Unfortunately, this idea still prevails in sections 

 where, for some reason or other, pests have not yet become a serious factor. 

 At one time, when Western Oregon apples were justly famous, the growers 

 said, ' We will never have wormy apples here because the climate is so moist.' 

 In the warm interior valleys orchardists now claim that fungous diseases will 

 never be a menace because the climate is too hot and dry; and upon the 

 interior uplands their competitors say that no insect or fungus enemy need 

 ever be feared because of the winds and the cool nights. In all this there is 

 a somewhat laboured effort to consider as proven what is at best a hope. 

 The experience of nearly every new region has been much the same. No 

 place has yet been discovered where orchards will thrive where pests will not 

 thrive also. The general truth of the statement is not affected by the well- 

 known fact that the amount of damage caused by a particular insect or 

 fungus varies greatly in different regions and in the same regions from year 

 to year. 



" The rapid spread of certain pests like the codlin moth and apple scab 

 in recent years has led some to the opposite extreme of view, namely, that 

 pests are far more injurious here than in other fruit-growing regions. A 

 careful comparison of the loss occasioned here in neglected orchards with 

 similar injury in older States reveals no evidence to justify such a conclusion. 



" Many orchardists have been slow to adapt themselves to the new con- 

 ditions caused by the introduction and spread of insects and fungous diseases. 

 Although these new conditions have undoubtedly increased the cost of 

 producing fruit, the growers who have used proper efforts to control insects 

 and diseases have been uniformly successful in raising profitable crops of 

 high-grade fruits ; on the contrary, the product of neglected orchards is, as a 

 rule, so badly injured that most of it is unmarketable, or must be sold at a 

 very low price. 



" Serving as object lessons, such results are doing much to increase 

 rational efforts to combat orchard enemies, and, undoubtedly, the situation 

 will become better from year to year, as the great majority of persons now 

 setting out orchards realise beforehand that it is one of the factors necessary 

 to success." 



Owing to the determined attitude of the Board of Horticulture, we in 

 this Province have so far happily escaped the San Jose scale, codlin moth, 

 peach tree borer, and possibly some minor evils, the two former especially 

 being amongst the worst enemies of the fruit-grower in the adjoining States 



