A Fruit Survey oe Mesa County 
33 
Probably less than half of the fruit growers own spraying ma¬ 
chines. This means that they must hire a machine to do their 
spraying. This is usually more expensive and less satisfactory 
than having a machine of one’s own, because the rented sprayers 
can not always be had at the most effective time for spraying. 
The usual charge for a man, team and sprayer is $1.00 for each 
tank (200 gallons) of arsenical spray applied and $1.25 per tank for 
lime-sulphur. 
PEARS 
From a financial standpoint, the pear seems to be the best fruit 
for Grand Valley to grow. Most pears are grown here to per¬ 
fection, and the supply is seldom greater than the demand on any 
good market. 
Pears thrive on a heavier soil and succeed where the stone 
fruits fail. They also stand more neglect than the other tree 
fruits. Their chief drawback is the danger from pear blight. 
Pear Blight 
Pear blight, also known as fire blight, spur blight, blossom 
blight and body blight, is a bacterial disease which has caused the 
loss of thousands of good pear trees in Grand Valley. The dis¬ 
ease was very prevalent in 1915. While it was found all over the 
Valley, it was worse in a few localities, as for example, just east 
of Grand Junction, about six miles northwest of Grand Junction, 
on Orchard Mesa southeast of Grand Junction, and a few local¬ 
ities at Palisade, where the attacks were less severe. 
Blight is usually associated with succulent wood growth 
caused by too much irrigation. It also gives evidence of being re¬ 
lated more or less directly to injury by late spring frosts. As 
blight was found on some orchards which had not been watered 
and which had made very little wood growth the preceding year, it 
seemed very plausible that the blight was materially aided by frost. 
There is no known cure for the disease. The best method of con¬ 
trol is to cut out the branches as soon as the blight is discovered. 
The cut should be made 10 inches or more below the point where 
the blight occurs. The limb should never be cut off and left as a 
stub, but should be removed to the nearest lateral branch. 
As a precaution against spreading the disease, the tools should 
be disinfected by dipping into a 1-1000 solution of corrosive sub¬ 
limate. Nearly all of the blight in Grand Valley in 1915 gave evi¬ 
dence of starting in the blossoms. Some of it did little damage 
except to the fruit spurs. In many orchards, however, where fruit 
