BOARD OP HOIUriCULTURB, MONTANA. 27 



Pippiu, etc. Mr. Lakia informed me but a short time before his death that 

 he had 1500 living trees and that counting the number he had lost from va- 

 rious causes, the trees had cost him $1,000.00. The finiit grower of today, 

 if he will, may profit by the experience of those early planters of trees. 



There are at present upwards of two hundrd farmers with orchards 

 planted. The total yield of fruit will amount in value to twelve or fifteen 

 thousand dollars. If all the trees planted in the last ten years had been 

 taken care of properly and had been of the varieties suited to this locality, 

 the fruit crop would be worth at least thirty or forty thousand dollars. It 

 is astonishing to see the proportion of the orchards now growing that are 

 only one to three years of age. The farmers are taking a greater interest 

 in fruit culture than they ever have before. A great many who have plant- 

 ed from seventy-five to one hundred trees remark: "If I can only grow 

 enough fruit for my own use I will be satisfied," apparently not realizing 

 that from three-fourths to one acre of land occupied by those few trees 

 will in a short time yield more clear profit than any ten acres of the farm. 

 The orchards are very free from dangerous insect pests. One orchard 

 near Kalispell has codling moth. Fourteen trees bore fruit infested with 

 moth. The apples were gathered and burned, the trees were marked and 

 next spring will be sprayed as will all other trees in their near vicinity. 

 The green aphis were very bad in all portions of the county and there was 

 more spraying done than ever before. The best results were obtained with 

 whale oil soap and tobacco and with a carbolic mixture sold here which 

 costs about 2y2 cents per gallonof spray. Kerosene emulsion, when 

 properly made, has given good results, but so few have soft water that 

 they have trouble in preparing it. In some portions of the county, the cur- 

 rant worms made their appearance this year. The use of hellebore was 

 only partially effective. I have recommended the use of arsenical prepara- 

 tions next spring, which will probably prove more effectual. 



The number of fruit trees in the Fifth district is between sixty and 

 seventy thousand, over two-thirds of which have been planted in the last 

 three years. I have inspected two hundred eight orchards containing 

 45,546 apple trees, 1861 pear trees, 3318 plum trees, 2820 cherry trees and 

 15 peach trees, making a total of 53,560 trees inspected. There are at To- 

 bacco Plains in the neighborhood of 3,000 trees, and in the vicinity of Troy 

 and Libby as many more, and allowing for a few orchards set out in the 

 past spring, which were missed, will bring the total above 60,000 trees. 

 Tobacco Plains is about ninety miles distant; also Libby and vicinity and 

 could not be visited this year. Two orchai'ds were found infested with the 

 oyster shell bark louse and one young orchard had a few codling moth. 

 The pear leaf blister mite is very numerous in the vicinity of Flathead 

 lake. Never before have the green aphis infested the trees as they have 

 the present year. The fruit growers have invested in spray pumps until the 

 supply was exhausted here in Kalispell, just when spraying was needed 



