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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1963)
IT Museum Bv EVA HAMILTON By EVA HAMILTON Mail Tribune Staff Writer The Rogue River Valley has no "Silent Spring." Outdoor life this fall has been pretty noisy, too, in val ley orchards with robins chirp ing while feasting under pear trees. The shortest crop in history of the fruit industry still provides food for the birds and they express their thanks in song. This doesn't mean that members of the Fruit Grow ers League are not concerned about spray poisons and the side effects of some toxic in secticides. They may not go along with the warnings of Rachel Car son's book but they are con stantly contributing to the study, which all hope will de velop a selective chemical to destroy their enemies and not their friends of the insect world. (To be specific, for in stance, the spotted mites but not the lady bugs.) Much progress has been Vs" - -T? Mf Miss Mary Hnnley, curator of the Jacksonville Museum, recently accepted diaries and docu ments, portraying history nf the fruit industry, from Stephen G. Nye (left) and Don Root, presi dent of the Fruit Growers League. Already entered in the fruit industry exhibit at the museum is this cut from the trunk of a peach tree on the pioneer Peter Britt estate. The tree was 56 years old when destroyed by a windstorm in 1910. The trunk as the ruler shows was 12 inches in diameter. hi pMfv I " 1 .ill J I This pressure trlrr nf pears, now nn exhibit in the Jack sonville Museum, is the onc nal Oregon pressure tester. It was built in Mrrtford m p'l'i hy the late Bill Young. Spenfira tion were developed hy horticulturists at Oregon State col leg in ronpemiinn with County Agenl C. f. Cate. It was Usd as a mean of determining when pears were ready for harvest. A similar teMer has been in lW since invi. Documents Review the History of Orchard Spraying m.,h .Win. ,k -n.. i ....... ...... . made during the years. The request of the Jacksonville Museum for equipment used in early horticulture in Jack son county and for documents relating the history has brought positive proof of this. Because the pear industry is an integral element in southern Oregon living and its history inseparable from the history of Jackson county, the museum is seeking exhib its to demonstrate each opera tion in the production of fruit. Spraying is an accepted oper ation and has been as long as records have been kept here. The manner in which spray ing is done has undergone many changes, however, and so have spray formulas. These changes have been for the bet er, according to county agents and growers. Accomplished by Research This has been accomplished through research and experi mentation in spite of the fact that as the culture becomes more intense more pests ap pear and at the same time the people demand more per fection in fruit. Until 1880. orchardists used something like a whisk broom for spraying. It was dipped into the solution and whijked about the trees. In 1R94 power spray rigs came in. They were powered by steam. In 1900. gas replaced steam, and in 1911 a pressure regulator was devised. The spray gun was adopted in 1014. Before that the rod, made of steel or bamboo with light aluminum lining, had done the work nf distributing spray through the trees on branches and leaves. Aerial spraying was initiat ed as a commercial project in 1!M6 by Central Aircraft of Yakima. Wash. The company sent Harold Conner to Med ford to launch the project. Test work in this medium had been done earlier. Before adoption of the air blast sprayer which has been in use since 1944, orchardists Aerial spraying is used for th application nf many formu las. Rut the leading uses here are for applying rnpper riu4 in the spring for blight control and to stop the dropping nf fruit by application of hormone spray at harvest lime. (KnarksteHt Photo) tried using stationary sprav stations and thousands of acres were piped for this in novation. The pumper and tank were placed at a central station in the orchard and the pipe lines were laid in a man ner to accommodate eight tree rows from one pipe with 200 feet of hose attached. The invention of the air blast sprayer made all this invest ment obsolete. The air compressed sprayer used in the early lOUOs had two tanks. There was also a barrel sprayer with tower at tached. One workman manned the tower to spray the tops of the trees. The one cylinder gas en gines used in spraying in 1914 and 1915 often limited the or chardist to throwing the spray no more than three feet. Trees Were Banded In addition to the work in volved in crude spraying methods, the orchardist band ed the trees to kill moth lar va. The bark was scraped and a treated band placed around the tree. The worms, hatched from the moth eggs, sought refuge for the winter under the treated band and were killed. The whole opera tion in the beginning took one man one hour to each tree. They became more adept aft er practice. The old spray formulas con tained carbolic acid, powder ed lie and snuff, frequently. Paris green and arsenate of lead, which were commonly applied, were more poisonous than the chemicals being used today, orchardists insist. Lead was accumulative and permanent. Present day in secticides deteriorate. DDT, which is being cancelled out by the orchardists, is less toxic but persistent. They are now substituting Guthion. Black leaf 40 with 40 per cent nicotine also was high in toxidity. Favor Regulation Today the chemical industry is in favor of regulation, ac cording In the Fruit Growers League. The chemists present no argument against regula tion. But they do object to what they refer to as "stale menls that have no confirma tion through scientific investi gation. Industry fights regula tion on surmise." It costs from $1 to $2 mil linn to produce a new insec ticide. The major portion of this cost is in the investiga tion which must be made for the protection of the public. The companies put up the money and it takes about five years to get clearance on a new formula. If the chemists find indications that the prep aration is too toxic, it is aban doned along the way. Tolerance Is Granted The industry is now granted a tolerance of five parts of DDT to 1,000,000 of produce, according to C. B. Cordy, horticultural agent for Jack son county. It has been found that up to 5.000 parts can be used without liver damage through research of the toxi cology section, technology branch, communicable disease center of the Public Health Service. The Pure Food department picks up samples of fruit ev ery year for analysis. The federal representatives come to the valley unannounced. The tolerances allowed are not the levels at whirh dam age occurs, Cordy emphasiz ed. There is a level of toler ance and a level of safely. The danger level is frequently 100 times higher. The orchard ists always operate within the level of safety. The federal food and drug Features SECTION 5.- V-.- w . . iswJSWB!.- " I r i This is the first spray rig to be photographed in the Rogue River Valley, according to information given the Jacksonville Mu seum, where the photo is on display. The picture was taken by the late Vinton Bcall. The two-man hand f limp sent spray into the bamboo pole. H look three men to do (he job. administration and the grow ers are of one mind in want ing In give the public I h e cleanest, safest and most at tractive food in the world. Artificial K.nvinmmcnt When working with a com mercial crop, Dr. Pete Wes lergarri, entomologist at Ihe experiment station, emphasiz ed, the agents are working in an artificial environment. Pears are not native to this area. Neither are the natural enemies of the pests which would destroy the fruit. Scientists are trying lo de velop means of using biologi cal agents for control. This has been successful in some crops, particularly alfalfa and cotton. So far attempts have not been successful in dealing with apples and pears. The chemical that kills the un wanted, also kills the wanted, such as lady bugs, lace wings and others. California growers, howev er, were able lo combat scale hy importing lady hugs. The SI. .lohnswnrt beetle, import ed in Jackson and Josephine counties in 19.r(), has destroyed Ihe wort, also known as goat weed, on thousands of acres. The need is to find predators and parasites native to t h e pear's natural environment. Pests Are Productive Most of the pests are very productive, a pair of two-spotted mites have a 50 billion potential. Scientists have learned that they can make some of these bugs sterile hy treating them with radioac tive material. In Canada and Europe they radiate the in sects in the laboratory, then release them in the field. They mate with fertile females and fail to produce offspring. Brit Medford B MliDFORD, OREGON. - ish Columbia and Y'akima are doing this in their coddling moth experiment. The spider mites have heen here since the 1020s. After DDT was brought into use 10 lo 15 per cent more, fruit was saved from worms. One nf the objectionable side effects of DDT, however, is destruc This high pressure arranged to function. , ; , ' : , , .'7i .U, , '' V . -a mt. a ii K'. - 'Vfp (.fciita r i 'f if t-Tiib, in mitm if' itr-f-r n '' " "' " 11 '" '' M This is the mrhlast sprayer commonly used in the tractor. (Knackstcdt Photo) , '. 1 Tribune SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1MB tion of Ihe henefirial preda tors. Ciiilhion is being used more and more in this valley although it is much more ex pensive.. After using these synthetic materials for more than five years, growers find that Ihe pests have developed an im munily in their struggle for spray rig could be operated by one '(Knackstcdt Photo) orchards today, All it requires in the Sports PAGES 1 to 8 survival. Mutation Is random and a never ending process. But as it continues, so does the research. It is all a constant battlfl of man against nature or with ' nature, depending upon wheth er you are making judgment 'from the viewpoint of the bug or the man. man, Ihe way the spray nozzles were way of man-power is someone lo driv )
