Garden Notes.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 11 September 1912, Page 5

Garden Notes.

A PARADISE FOR PESTS AND DISEASES. ("By Commercial Orchardist," in the "New Zealand Farmer," June 1911), With notes by " Old Ebony."

THE "BACKYARD ORCHARD."

" What is apply termed the ' Backyard ' orchard, be it in city, suburb or country town, is a curae and menace to us growers who earn our livelihood by the production of fruit. Since the introduction of so many insect and fungoid pests into our Dominion from abroad, it has been a constant fight between us for tbe upper hand. Every commercial grower nowadays has his spraying plant, and considers the various sprayings as an absolutely essential part of the year's work. To mention some of the more important of these operations: We commence, say, in June with the application of bordeaux mixture to our peach trees, July and August will find the pump at work in endeavouring to cope with scale, red spider and woolly aphis, by the use of oil washes. August will see us again attacking the fungus diseases of the peach, and also of the plum with bordeaux. In September and October apple and pear scab require the same remedy; whilst, from November to picking time, the spray pump is continuously employed in combating the codlin moth, and, if necessary, in making further applications of bordeaux for controlling such diseases as scab on apples and pears. A spraying or two i with' lielebore for the leech will also help to keep us from being idle. It will thus be seen that during at least nine months out of the twelve the spray pump is kept going; but during this period what are the ' Backyard orchards' doing ? A few, a mighty few, are doing their best in their small way to emulate our efforts at control, whilst the remainder sit complacently on their verandahs or go to picnics and whatnot, leaving their fruit trees to look after themselves, ami allowing the pests to breed in millions to help in nullifying our efforts. Business frequently brings me into town, and I have often noted hundreds, yes, thousands, of disease laden and pest ridden fruit trees in the city and suburbs, To take one of these hot beds of disease : Roughly speaking, about forty trees stand on the property, mostly apple trees unkempt and uncared for—solitary senti- j nels of what was once, possibly, a profitable orchard —now a hot bed for most of the pests that fruit trees are heir to. To enumerate some of these parasites, there were ' mothed' apples in hundreds on the trees, and lying | on the ground. Moss inches long, and woolley aphis like great carbuncles on the wood. Eed spider and mussel scale were vying with each other for a vacant spot on the bark. Leech had stripped the leaves of the few plum, pear and quince- trees present, whilst a couple of peach trees were practically defoliated with curl and black aphis and dead timber was prominent, owing to attacks of die back and pr-ilf, the borer being rampant throughout, and these pests, increasing and multiplyingwithout let or hindrance, within half a mile of a number of commercial orchards. Where could the hardship be in rooting such trees out, twig, trunk and root ? They are neither

useful nor ornamental

There are, I know, government Inspectors attending to these cases, but what good can they do in such instances aa the above, where, to my knowledge, the tenancy has changed hands three or four times in less than that number of years. The biggest service the inspectors could render us growers, would be to give them one chance only of attending to their trees, and if no notice is taken of the warning, give them a week in which to root them out. Until some such drastic measures are taken in both town and country, we cannot expect to reduce the number of sprayings at present found necessary to insure our trees being free from pest."

Fairly straight talk that. But do not get angry about it. It is not perhaps jusb the way. we like our few trees spoken of a ' Burnyard' or ' Backyard 'is it orchard. It sounds a bit sarcastic, especially when the writer goes on to say, "We sit complacently on our verandahs, go to picnics and what not, leaving our trees to look after themselves, to breed pests by the million, as if we had nothing else to do." We are not all commercial orchardists, and to scramble for a living we find very much else to do in other ways. But" let that pass. Look at the question squarely. It is quite up to us to do what we can for our own sa^-e, as well as the other fellows, to get rid of these pests (and incidently the stigma) from our poor neglected trees. It is perhaps because we have so much else to do, and the fact that our trees are ouly a sort of side line, the fruit grown chiefly for home consumption, and with many of us perfect ignoranc as to what to do, and when to do it, and a lack of the possible expensive appliances, more than wilful neglect; and as for damaging our esteemed friend, the commercial orchardist, we wouldn't do it for worlds. Just so, but we are going it all the same. We can no more confine the ravages of pests to our own few trees than we can control the wind ; and pray do not let us delude ourselves ■with the idea that we are in any way free irom. these pests. It may be the of an expert to recognise them, .and some of the young rascals are so £ivy you need a microscope to find

them. There they are, however, and common justice demands our falling into line, and every one must "Build j over against his own house." It pay?. [ too, handsomely, to attend to all spraying operations most thoroughly and many old trees apparently useless, with carefull attention, can be made profitable. Carefully cut away all dead wood and spray straight away before the blossoms open with " Bordeaux mixture. (Winter formula— 10 lbs. bluestone, 10 lbs. fresh roche lime, and 40 gallons water, small quantities in proportion, dissolve the bluestone in hot water, in wood or earthern vessel. Slake the lime slowly and mix, stirring the while. If you must use kerosene tins, boil some water first then add bluestone, stir till dissolved and mix quickly or the copper will eat holes in the tin). Don't be stuck up for a spraying machine, borrow one, or hire one, won't cost much. For two years the writer used an old whitewash brush and just flicked it on. Anything, only get it on the trees. Got no time; very well, worry thatßodneyAgricultural Society, send the secretary a post card, tell him what you want, he'll get you fixed up. Send him a sub., help the society along, and make use of them.