NEw YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. BOT, 
forms us that the mite has been quite a serious pest in apple or- 
chards in his vicinity and at Leyden. Prof. H. A. Surface of the 
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture states that spotting of 
apple foliage by the mite occurs in practically all portions of Penn- 
sylvania. It seems to be generally distributed, but is overlooked or 
is not recognized by fruit growers. Mr. W. J. Schoene, while en- 
gaged in nursery inspection in Illinois, recognized the work of the 
mite in apple orchards in the southern part of that state, but Dr. 
Forbes has written me that its injuries have not been of sufficient 
importance to attract attention. Prof. T. D. Jarvis of the Ontario 
Agrcultural College has also reported outbreaks of the blister-mite 
in apple orchards in the Province of Ontario, Canada. 
It is a pest wherever pears are grown, and is probably widely 
distributed on apples, although its work on apple foliage seems not 
to be as common as on pears or as destructive as it is at present in 
the leading areas of apple production of western New York. 
EY PECTS -ON* CROP? YIELDS. 
The actual damage to apple orchards by the mite cannot be ac- 
curately determined, and figures on the effects of its attacks on 
crop yields are largely conjectural. Not infrequently injuries by 
the mite have been confused with the work of other destructive 
agencies. The unfavorable conditions of some orchards, said. to 
be damaged by the mite, may be more justly charged to several con- 
tributory causes, such as poor drainage and injuries by winter and 
by various insects and spraying mixtures. 
Orchards that are subject to an adverse environment, through 
lack of fertility, improper methods of tillage or droughty condi- 
tions of weather, usually show very plainly the effects of the mite, 
while closely adjoining plantings, which are grown in well-drained, 
fertile soil and given the needed tillage to stimulate a vigorous 
growth, may largely outgrow injuries by the first attacks in the 
spring and produce good yields. During 1908 it was quite gener- 
‘ally observed that timely rains favored the development of new 
foliage and in spite of early fears of losses by the mite, apples 
were abundant and of uniformly larger size than for several years. 
Fruit growers whose trees have been much infested believe that 
the mite has caused more or less dropping of the young fruits, and 
that the general infestation of the foliage lowers the vitality and 
productiveness of the trees and injures the leaf and fruit buds for 
the next year’s crop. In badly infested orchards, especially where 
