FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 169 



has about fifty acres in orchard, consisting of peach, with a 

 few pear and plum trees. 



In the summer of 1902, many of our plum trees did not 

 appear to be in a very flourishing condition. A close exam- 

 ination showed the presence of San Jose scale. At that time 

 the trees were in full foliage, and the fruit fully half grown, 

 a good set of fruit being upon the trees. What to do at that 

 season of the year was hard to tell, but realizing that the 

 scale would soon kill the trees, we resolved to employ the eas- 

 iest method at hand, and thoroughly bathe the trees with 

 kerosene oil, using in the application a whisk broom, a paint 

 brush and a bunch of rags. We thoroughly painted and 

 rubbed the trunks and the larger branches with the brush 

 and rags, using the broom to apply it nearer the ends of the 

 branches, much of it, of course, falling upon the foliage. 



The experiment resulted in killing the scale upon the 

 branches where, in the application, the oil reached, and in no 

 apparent injury to the foliage or fruit, which in many cases 

 w^as soaked by the application, so much so that when the fruit 

 was harvested it smelled and tasted of the kerosene. These 

 plum trees are located at one side of the peach orchard, and 

 surrounded on three sides by them. 



The spring of 1903 showed that the scale had spread to 

 the surrounding peach trees to a limited extent. Not having 

 any other means at our command, and one of our company 

 having used crude petroleum m his own orchard quite suc- 

 cessfully, and owning a "Kerowater" pump, we purchased 

 and used two barrels of crude petroleum. The results were 

 fairly satisfactory, there being no apparent injury to the 

 trees. 



In the spring of 1904 a careful examination of our trees 

 showed the presence of the scale in several different local- 

 ities in our orchard. No section was badly infested, but 

 enough was found to awaken us to the fact that something 

 must be done for its extermination. 



We accordingly made plans to spray the entire orchard 

 of nine thousand trees with the lime-sulphur wash. One of 

 our company owned a Safety farm engine and boiler of five 

 horse power, which we hired for cooking the mixture. This 



