i!66 
THE RURAL NliW-VORKliR 
March &, 
STRUGGLE WITH THE SCALE. 
New York Apple Orchards Saved. 
The developments of the last decade 
have demonstrated the feasibility of con¬ 
trolling San Jose scale, not only in young 
orchards where spraying is comparatively 
easy, but also on older trees, where size, 
proximity and an uneven surface all con¬ 
tribute to increase the difficulties. Prac¬ 
tically all fruit growers recall the earliest 
announcements of the appearance of this 
pest in the East, and not a few then 
shared the general feeling that the dan¬ 
ger from this insect was greatly overesti¬ 
mated. The tense conditions obtaining 
about 1900, when every scrap of informa¬ 
tion respecting the scale was eagerly 
seized, are still vivid memories. The 
extended discussion of whale-oil soap, 
kerosene and crude oils and their emulsions 
and mechanical dilution were accompanied 
by numerous experiments, trials and appli¬ 
cations, some of vvhich can hardly be 
classed as conservative, at least. Limoid, 
now only a memory, once held the center 
of the stage. The lime-sulphur and salt 
solution was soon succeeded by a lime- 
sulphur wash, while the earlier commercial 
products have been replaced by the highly 
charged and, for the most part, very effi¬ 
cient commercial preparations sold under 
trade names. The mechanical mixtures 
of oils have been in turn displaced by the 
so-called “soluble” or miscible oils, and a 
number of excellent brands are now upon 
the market. 
Some of the earliest infestations by 
San Jose scale in the East were discovered 
in the Hudson Valley. One was on the 
farm of Mr. L. L. Morrell of Kinderhook, 
who at that time possessed a relatively 
small old orchard and a large number of 
vigorous, recently set trees. The latter 
were very severely injured, and most 
naturally received first attention, while 
the old trees, showing signs of distress 
later, were largely ignored. The latter 
have mostly disappeared, while the young 
trees, despite their having been very badly 
infested and at times in bad shape, are 
now in a thriving condition, and the once 
dreaded scale w'ell under control. This 
desirable result was not .obtained at once, 
but was accomplished in spite of discour¬ 
aging conditions only after years of pa¬ 
tient and determined effort on the part 
of the owner. 
The control of this pest in an old orchard 
is admittedly much more difficult. It fell 
to the lot of Mr. W. H. Hart of Pough¬ 
keepsie to test out on an extended scale, 
the practicability of combating this de¬ 
structive pest on large trees. It was fight 
or lose the orchard. At one time the 
writer saw most of the upper fourth of 
many of the trees dead or dying from 
scale injury. The insect was heading the 
trees back because the owner was unable 
to sprav the upper limbs effectively. 
Acting upon the hint and possibly aided 
in this respect by the scale injury, Mr. 
Hart began cutting out the tops in an 
effort to bring all limbs within reach of a 
sprav applied from the ground, since the 
uneven surface of the orchard precluded 
the successful employment of a tower. In 
some instances large limbs three inches 
or more in diameter were removed. Ref¬ 
erence to the accompanying illustrations 
show that the work must have been done 
carefully, since the trees are now in full 
vigor, and from a distance give few signs 
of the severe heading back of several years 
ago. The trees last Fall were heavily 
laden with excellent fruit, and were 
practically free from scale, except indi¬ 
viduals here and there which could not be 
thoroughly sprayed owing to various 
causes. 
It must be admitted that these desirable 
results were obtained only after years of 
patient trial, and even then might have 
failed bad the responsibility for the un¬ 
dertaking been in the hands of a less 
determined or less conservative man. This 
large orchard was sprayed in past years 
with a variety of materials, including 
mechanical mixtures of crude oil. the 
homemade lime-sulphur wash, the Cord- 
lev lime-sulphur wash, and finally a por¬ 
tion was treated with a commercial lime- 
sulphur wash. The applications of oil, 
while beneficial, were not so uniformly 
successful as the lime-sulphur prepara¬ 
tions. Experience soon showed that the 
keynote of success lay in the thoroughness 
of" application, and that the latter could 
be secured only under certain favorable 
conditions. It has been Mr. Hart’s in¬ 
variable practice for some years to sprav 
the trees with winds from opposite direc¬ 
tions, and whenever this has been possi¬ 
ble, the results have been most, satisfac¬ 
tory. Occasionally adverse winds pre¬ 
vailed. and it was impossible to spray cer¬ 
tain trees a second time, with the result 
that the limbs on the unsprayed half were 
invariably badly infested, and in some 
instances such a small percentage of the 
insects were destroyed that the trees as a 
whole became badly infested, and were 
rather seriously injured at the close of 
the season. These gratifying resplts 
were obtained not only upon the somewhat 
SUTTON BEAUTY TREE CUT COMPLETELY BACK. Fig. 96 
BEN DAVIS TREE CUT BACK FOUR YEARS AGO. Fig. 97, 
'REE WHERE SCALE WAS FIRST DISCOVERED. Fig. 98. 
BALDWIN TREE CUT BACK TO STUBS. Fig. 99. 
resistant Baldwin, but also in the case of 
Ben Davis, a variety very subject to 
serious infestation. The experience of 
recent years has convinced Mr. Hart that 
under his conditions at least, it is almost 
imperative to have some material which 
can be applied the moment weather condi¬ 
tions are favorable, and thus obviate the 
delay incident to a. somewhat prolonged 
boiling of the homemade material. V ith 
this in mind he tested last Spring the 
Cordley formula, making it up in advance, 
and also used one of the commercial lime- 
sulphur washes. Both were so successful 
that they will be tried out on a larger 
scale another season. Air. Hart now uses 
a gasoline power spraying outfit, and is 
very well satisfied with the equipment. 
The hose is tied to bamboo poles long 
enough so that the nozzles, set at an angle 
of 45°, can be elevated 12 or 15 feet. 
The conditions obtaining in the two 
cases discussed above are but typical of 
other situations in New York State, and 
should prove most encouraging to any 
fruit grower engaged in this combat. 
There is no longer a question of possibility 
or even of practicability, since both Messrs. 
Morrell. Hart and others waging a similar 
good fight in various sections of the State 
are doing this on a strictly business basis. 
The man who fails in this struggle can 
hardly attribute it to a lack of available 
knowledge, but must ultimately admit 
that in some way or other he has failed 
to appreciate one of the vital factors in 
the combat. Thousands of valuable trees 
have been killed by San Jose scale in this 
State, and many mare are likely to perish 
in the next decade. These losses are more 
general among those possessing relatively 
small holdings, and while each may be 
inconsiderable in itself, the aggregate is- 
enormous, and will eventually have a 
marked influence upon fruit production. 
The preparation of the lime-sulphur 
wash is a matter of some importance, 
since it is quite essential to secure a satis¬ 
factory combination between the lime and 
the sulphur. The formula for 50 gallons 
of wash which has been most generally 
employed in New York State calls for 15 
pounds of sulphur and 20 pounds of lime, 
the preparation to be boiled actively about 
an hour. This wash has been tried re¬ 
peatedly under varied conditions in differ¬ 
ent parts of the Eastern States, and where 
the application has been thorough the re¬ 
sults have been most satisfactory. A 
serious fault of this preparation has been 
the danger of the lime sulphides crystalliz¬ 
ing out on the cooling of the wash. This 
rendered it practically impossible to pre¬ 
pare the mixture in advance, and occasion¬ 
ally gave rise to inconvenience on account 
of the difficulty of keeping warm, larger 
or smaller quantities of the wash which 
might be left from day to day, due to 
interruptions in the work, unfavorable 
weather conditions or other causes. This 
led to the development of another com¬ 
bination which is known as the Cordley 
wash, and may be prepared by slaking 60 
pounds of good lime in a small quantity 
of water in a 75-gallon cooking vessel and 
stirring in 125 pounds of sulphur, pre¬ 
viously made into a paste; then add 45 
gallons of water, and boil rapidly for one 
or two hours, or until practically all the 
sediment has disappeared; dilute to 50 
gallons. The clear liquid should then test 
25 degrees on the Beaume scale. This 
wash may be kept indefinitely, and there¬ 
fore prepared some time in advance of 
spraying. Just prior to application it 
should be diluted with 5% times its 
volume of water, the diluted mixture giv¬ 
ing a reading on the Beaume scale of 
about 414 degrees. It is also well to add 
at this time, without increasing the dilu¬ 
tion indicated above, the soluble portion of 
six pounds of good stone lime in the form 
of milk of lime for each 50 gallons of 
spray. Experience has shown that the 
powdered commercial sulphur, 99.5% pure, 
is as efficacious as the more costly though 
finer, sublimed flowers of sulphur. It is 
advisable to use a good pure lime, 90 per 
cent calcium, and thus escape trouble with 
sediment. The commercial lime-sulphur 
washes can be used in the same way as 
the Cordley wash described above, and it 
is bv all means advisable to subject both 
the concentrated mixture and the diluted 
wash to the Beaume test, since a one per 
cent variation in the manufactured pro¬ 
duct means quite a difference in value. It 
is obvious that the dilution should be pro¬ 
portional to the soluble constituents of the 
wash. A commercial lime-sulphur wash 
testing 33 degrees may be diluted with 
eight parts of water. In conclusion, it 
should be recognized that a number of 
. practical men are much pleased with oil 
preparations of one kind or another, and 
some at least have been very successful 
in using certain commercial brands. This 
is especially true in the latitude of New 
Jersey, due possibly ‘to the relatively mild 
climatic conditions. Oil preparations are 
particularly adapted for use on trees in 
city and village lots where there is danger 
of discoloring the paint with a lime- 
sulnhur wash. ' e. p. felt. 
N. Y. State Entomologist. 
