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The only way it seemed possible to do this was to secure the cooperation of the 
growers most interested. The fact that the producers of any one crop are usually in 
one locality where the huge contiguous acreage makes the aggregate loss very evident, 
contributes nol a little to their appreciation of the desirability of such cooperation. 
The firsl arrangement of this kind will well illustrate the conditions, methods, and 
purposes of cooperative work of this kind. The hulk of the peaches grown for 
eastern shipment as fresh fruit is produced in Placer County along the line of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad in an area about 10 miles long and extending out on either 
side not over 4 or 5 miles. 
The average loss for the preceding four years from the attack of the peach worm 
had exceeded $300,000 per year in spite of spraying operations done in accordance 
with the best information obtainable. 
In response to the urgent request of the peach growers of that locality a man was 
placed in the field by the experiment station, and the people of Placer County paid 
the local expenses of the investigation. More important than the financial aid given 
was the feeling of personal interest aroused in the orchardists whereby large areas 
of bearing peach orchards were placed under the control of the investigator and every- 
thing done to aid in his work. Indeed the real cooperative spirit was manifested. 
Station entomologists do not fully enough realize the importance of working under 
commercial conditions. It is quite a different thing to get results on a dozen trees 
and on a thousand acres. The small experiments are essential in securing facts upon 
which to base our work, but the large scale experiment is the final test of the prac- 
tical value of the facts. It is only by some system of cooperation that an investigator 
can get control of a sufficient experiment-station plant for such large scale work. 
Some entomologists hold that their function is to work with insects to the extent 
of determining their life history, habits, and such matters, and when this is accom- 
plished their whole duty is done, and the facts obtained should then be turned over 
to other hands to bring to a practical conclusion. For these the name "economic 
entomologist" is a misnomer. We can not be content until the thing is accomplished 
toward which all our energies are directed, namely, the decrease of the loss due to 
insects. 
It is not enough to "find out how the loss can be prevented. It is necessary to 
demonstrate this to the farmer in such a way that it shall become part of his regular 
practice. In no way can this be accomplished so well as by this cooperation in which 
the leading orchardists of a district, working under the direction and direct super- 
vision of the investigator, succeed in saving their crops. They come into close touch 
with the experiments and profit by the failures as well as by the successes, for by 
their very nature experiments are not all successes. 
The peach worm investigation proved to he eminently successful. The investiga- 
tion began in January and the key to the problem was discovered before the first of 
March, so that it was possible to obtain results that year. Mr. Clarke, who was in 
charge of the experiments, addressed meetings of growers in various parts of the dis- 
trict and by the use of the local press made known the facts obtained by his laboratory 
experiments, and the recommendations based thereon appealed to the good sense of 
the growers to such an extent that nearly 90 per cent of the acreage in peaches were 
sprayed as directed; this includes the orchards under the immediate control of Mr. 
Clarke for experimental purposes. 
But it is not necessary to go into further detail, for the results are known to you 
through the publications of our station. 
We did not know at the time how complete a victory had been secured until the 
season advanced toward ]>icking time, and the insect was followed with the greatest 
rare and with the expectation of continuing the attack, but the spring operations 
had accomplished all that could he desired. 
The loss had been reduced where the spraying was well done and all conditions 
favorable to an amount below 1 per cent in orchards which the year before had 
suffered to the extent of half the crop. 
It is not often that such results can be secured with so little effort, and, under 
ordinary experimental conditions, it would have required years to introduce the 
treatment as an established practice. In this case the attitude of the peach grower 
changed from helplessness to confidence, and the past season, without any supervision 
from the station, they have been able to entirely duplicate last year's results. The 
insect has changed from the worst pest in this region to one of the least. 
Other cooperative investigations have been conducted in Los Angelos, Sutter, Yuba, 
Stanislaus, -Marin, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties. Most of these have been 
comparatively small studies, but one, that of the Pajaro Valley on the codling moth, 
now nearly concluded, has involved the expenditure of $2,750 contributed by the 
locality, the use of several hundred acres of bearing orchards, the losses in some of 
which, through unsuccessful spraying experiments, has probably equaled the direct 
