Copyright 11)10 by R. M. Kellogg Comfaiiy, Three Rivers. Michigan 

 A DISH OF FANCY DUNLAP AND WARFIELD STRAWBERRIES 



vicinity of Grand Junction, and that a 

 spray at such time would be successful. 

 A hand lens, costing twenty-five to 

 fifty cents, is of great service in finding 

 the lice. 



On March 25th some large Triumph 

 peach trees were sprayed on the C. H. 

 Dilley place at Clifton. These trees had 

 been sprayed a few days previously with 

 lime and sulphur, but apparently with no 

 success in killing the aphis, which at this 

 time were clinging to the partially open 

 blossoms waiting for a chance to get 

 within. Part of these trees were treated 

 with Black Leaf, one gallon to seventy 

 gallons of water, and the rest with Black 

 Leaf "40,'" one gallon to eight hundred 

 gallons of water. By exceedingly care- 

 ful and thorough spraying, entailing the 

 use of at least ten gallons of spray to a 

 tree, it was found that practically all the 

 lice could be killed. The Elberta trees 

 in this orchard did not have so many of 

 the aphids on them, and the manager of 

 the place decided that they did not need 

 to be sprayed. On May 11th an exam- 

 ination of these trees showed the 

 Elbertas to be badly infested, and the 

 Triumphs, which we had sprayed, were 

 exceedingly clean. The difificulty expe- 

 rienced in spraying trees so late in the 

 season lies in the fact that the leaves 

 always tend to curl and provide such 

 protection for the lice that only the most 

 thorough work can result in much good. 



No matter when the spraying may be 

 done for the control of this insect suc- 

 cess cannot be attained unless a very 

 thorough application of the insecticide 

 is made. In fact this is a general rule 

 that will hold good in spraying for the 

 control of all insect pests. While this 

 point is always emphasized by entomolo- 

 gists, our experience with orchardists has 

 been that many do not have a proper 

 conception of what thorough spraying 

 means. This may be due in part to the 

 failure to appreciate the fact that insects 

 multiply tremendously in a short time, 



and unless a spray kills practically all 

 of a pest, such as the one in question, a 

 few days or weeks may see them as 

 plentiful as they were before the spray 

 was applied. Spraying investigations 

 in the orchard also indicate that much 

 of the trouble is due to the expense of a 

 proper treatment. Most of the insecti- 

 cides used are very high priced, and the 

 orchardist does not feel that he can go 

 to the expense necessary to thoroughly 

 treat his trees. He very often fails to 

 realize that work such as this, half done, 

 is really work wasted, to say nothing of 

 the expense. 



It is safe to say that spraying for the 

 control of the green peach aphis can only 

 be successful when very great care is 

 used to thoroughly drench every portion 

 of infested trees. The many experiments 

 conducted has brought us to these con- 

 clusions: 1, lime and sulphur, both Rex 

 and home prepared; Black Leaf extract, 

 Black Leaf "40" and soluble oil may be 

 effectively used for the control of the 

 green peach aphis when applied in the 

 early spring, just as the eggs are hatch- 

 ing; 2, a lime and sulphur spray is not 

 effective when applied two weeks or 

 more after the eggs are hatched, for at 

 this time the stem-mothers are mature, 

 or nearly so, and are able to resist the 

 action of this insecticide; 3, good tobacco 

 preparations may be used with success 

 any time after the aphids hatch, but it 

 is more difficult to succeed late in the 

 spring because it is then more difficult 

 to get the spray on all the lice on 

 account of the protection of the leaves; 

 4, the best time to spray for this insect 

 is in the early spring, when the eggs are 

 hatching. 



As an enemy of the peach, black peach 

 aphis has never been of much economic 

 importance in Colorado. It has been 

 found from time to time in the peach 

 growing sections of the western slope, 

 but apparently has not been able to con- 

 tinue for any length of time in orchards 



where it has been introduced. Notwith- 

 standing the fact that up to the present 

 time it has never made any headway in 

 the orchards, it is well for the peach 

 growers not to take any chances in 

 orchards where it does appear, but to 

 be prompt in making a very thorough 

 application of Black Leaf, or some other 

 good contact spray to infested trees. 

 The fact that this pest has the habit of 

 feeding upon the roots as well as the 

 twigs of peach trees makes it one that is 

 dreaded. Because of its ability to live 

 below as well as above ground it might 

 become a serious pest if conditions 

 should happen, at any time, to be favor- 

 able to its development. 



Very often peach nursery stock com- 

 ing from an infested nursery is found to 

 be badly infested with this aphis. When 

 such trees are found they should either 

 be carefully fumigated with hydrocyanic 

 acid gas or sprayed with a good contact 

 insecticide, such as Black Leaf, kero- 

 sene emulsion or whale-oil soap. Figure 

 5 shows a section of a peach twig on 

 which is a large number of these aphids. 

 This twig was cut from a tree which 

 had just been removed from a box 

 shipped into the state from an outside 

 nursery. There were so many aphids in 

 the box that they found their way 

 through cracks and could actually be 

 seen crawling on the outside in consider- 

 able numbers. The box bore a fumiga- 

 tion tag, and the inspector, whose duty 

 it was to look over all shipments of 

 nursery trees into the county, rightly 

 condemned all the trees in the box. The 

 dark color of the adult lice and their 

 habit of feeding on the tender bark 

 rather than the leaves enables us to sep- 

 arate this louse readily from the fore- 

 going species. 



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Editor Better Fruit: 



Although I take several other fruit journals and 

 papers, I consider "Better Fruit" worth all the rest 

 of them at the same subscription price. Joseph 

 Weston, Belton, Mississippi. 



