The San Jose Scale Was Already on Stage in Yakima

I am surprised that one whose aim is to be a teacher among the horticulturists of the Northwest would go on record with so erroneous an article as we find in your editorial on page 8, October 28 issue, without raising a voice to correct. I am referring to the San Jose scale. Prof. Hedrick is not very far from being wrong; in fact, with nine out of ten orchards his advice is correct. In this section we have had the pest for several years, and although every method has been tried, up to this time there has not been one single orchard that has been able to eradicate the scale. The most energetic have kept them in check, but at great expense; those that have been the least bit careless find that their orchards are nearly ruined. What is worse, we find that the scale is extending in every direction—miles and miles, yes, hundreds of miles of new territory are reporting the scale each year, despite the stringent laws of our states against the spread of the pest.

I find that it gets a strong hold in new sections before anyone seems aware of its presence. Last winter at Yakima, specimens of nursery trees were brought to the stage for Prof. Balmer to use for illustrations in pruning. Upon every tree I saw the San Jose scale, and on an alder bush I never saw them thicker. Enough to infect every orchard in the whole valley were there on the stage. Now, who do you suppose will take the time to clean the brush along the streams when once infested? Not until the true facts are brought to us will we realize our danger. The ruin of some of our best orchards means the financial ruin of one of our most promising industries. It means the Ranch and Range will not have the most promising of fruit countries to boast of, or the dollars of the horticulturists rolling in to swell the bank account.

My position as inspector gives me an opportunity to speak from knowledge, and I assure you that Bordeaux mixture will be no more effective in killing or eradicating the San Jose scale than trying to lasso a locomotive on the Northern Pacific railway.

We often see copied in the leading agricultural papers theoretical ideas which are very misleading, as so many are willing to believe and advocate the easiest way. We think our editors should investigate thoroughly by consulting the state experimental stations before publishing as fact remedial agencies. If depended on even for one season, the insect may get such a start as to be almost beyond control. I have in mind an item of “one of the good old ways”—whitewashing the tree, “a sure protection from the scale, etc.” Its fallacy is at once apparent, as the scale is largely distributed by being carried on the feet of birds, and as we all know they usually alight on the branches where the new growth has come, even if the man with the whitewash brush had been able to whitewash—as we doubt he would—every limb. So far we have found only the sulphur, lime and salt, or the sulphur, lime and vitriol sprays efficient in killing the scale, and it must be well and thoroughly applied. If on an infested tree a spot as large as a silver dollar is left without being wet with the spray, there is a spot where enough scale will hatch to again infest the tree, and perhaps be scattered to others in some distant part of the orchard. There is not an orchardist, in my opinion, in the whole country that would dare deny Prof. Hedrick when he said “that an orchard once affected was doomed,” for entire eradication has yet to be proven. Concerted action will keep them in check, but till some better methods, as well as more stringent laws, are given us, I fear we cannot stamp out the San Jose scale. Yours truly, L. A. Porter, State Inspector District No. 2.