372 Report OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY OF THE 
other conditions have not been favorable, the mite has unquestion- 
ably influenced unfavorably the production of crops, as the foliage 
could not be diseased to such a degree without the vitality of the 
trees being affected. This influence, while not easily measured, 
has undoubtedly in a good many orchards been important, but in 
general there has been a tendency to overrate the actual damages 
by the mite. 
EXPERIMENTS IN CONTROLLING THE LEAS 
BLISTER-MITE. 
The experiments described under this heading were undertaken 
by the Station in its own orchards or in co-operation with several 
fruit growers who had desired to spray for the blister-mite. All 
of the orchards, preceding the spraying tests, were badly infested 
with the mite and they afforded excellent opportunities for deter- 
mining the reiative merits of the different spray mixtures, and of 
demonstrating to fruit growers on a commercial scale efficient meth- 
ods for controlling this pest. Each orchard is discussed separately 
and it has been intended to give in condensed form an accurate 
idea of the conditions and results of the experimental operations. 
ORCHARD I, 
As has been the experience of fruit growers generally in Ontario 
County, the Station apple orchard has also been infested with the 
leaf blister-mite. In 1906 pimpling of young apples and blistering 
of leaves were very conspicuous, especially on several trees of the 
variety Williams, which were for two years badly affected and 
have apparently sustained important injuries. During that year, 
250 varieties were recorded as showing more or less of the work of 
the mite. Some of the leading commercial varieties which had their 
foliage badly diseased were the Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, 
Sutton, Fall Pippin, Ben Davis and King. The work of the mite 
was largely confined to the younger apple orchard, which comprises 
6 acres and contains 218 trees. 
In this orchard experiments have been made to determine. the 
comparative merits of sulphur washes, oil emulsions and miscible 
c:! for the control of the leaf blister-mite. In the spring of 1907 
the orchard was divided into three areas, and each area has been 
treated with the same spraying mixture for the past two years. 
For purposes of comparison some applications of each insecticide 
were made in the fall, but the larger proportion of the spraying has 
