TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



143 



grow sugar-beets and alfalfa. A railroad afterward cut off a corner, 

 which he planted to Eucalyptus globulus. At the end of ten years, he 

 harvested his wood and found that it netted him 10 per cent annually 

 on the investment, with practically no work after setting out the small 

 trees. 



With these conditions, we can not look for such development in decid- 

 uous fruit-growing as our neighbors in the north have enjoyed. Their 

 cheaper lands which are in larger areas than we have here and with 

 unlimited supplies of water, naturally preclude any such development. 



PESTS AND DISEASES OF DECIDUOUS FRUITS. 



By JOHN ISAAC, of San Feancisco. 



You will often hear the statement made by people who look regret- 

 fully back to the good old times, that the fruit industry is going to the 

 bow-wows, because there are such swarms of diseases and pests now 

 to be combatted; and that, when they were boys, such things were 

 unknown. Now, the fact is that, although not generally known, they 

 existed as much then as they do to-day; but in those good old times, 

 fruit-growing was an incident, not a business, and commercial orchards 

 were rare. Our fathers grew a few trees for family use. If they bore 

 good fruit, well and good; if the fruit was small and scrubby, no ques- 

 tions were asked as to the reason, and the young folks still ate it with a 

 relish and remember its good qualities to-day. If the tree sickened 

 and died, it couldn't be helped, and no especial attention was paid to it. 



Of recent years, fruit-eating is becoming more and more general. 

 Fruit has become an article of merchandise. It is found on every table 

 and in various forms. In the struggle for a better market, a wider 

 demand and larger prices, every class of fruit has been wonderfully 

 improved, and the full strength of the tree has been forced into the 

 fruit; while the tree itself, as a rule, has become more and more delicate, 

 bearing at an earlier age, passing its season of usefulness sooner, and 

 succumbing more readily to the attacks of disease and insects. Then, 

 too, in our efforts to produce superior fruits, we have paid more attention 

 to their ailments. We have studied their requirements and their 

 sufferings closer, and are now aware of vegetable troubles that were 

 wholly unknown or unnoticed by our ancestors. So much is this true, 

 that vegetable pathology and entomology have practically stepped from 

 the unknown into the ranks of the sciences, within the past century. 



The reasons, then, why we have more troubles to overcome in our 

 orchards than our ancestors had, are that we know more about those 

 troubles, that we have more trees to be attacked, and that our trees are 

 more delicate. There is yet another reason. In our efforts to get the 

 best, we have scoured the world over for varieties, imported them from 



