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49. Hon. the Chairman.] How often do you bandage ? —Every Saturday. With a number of trees we cut pieces of paper and drop them in the forks, and in that way we get over the work much more quickly. We shift the papers every day, because they would get blown away, but we remove the bandages on Saturday. 50. Mr. Syme.] Apparently, in your opinion, it is a want of knowledge which prevents people from taking the proper precautions. Do you think it would be a wise thing on the part of the Government to send instructors round to instruct people with small orchards as to what they ought to do ?—That is a question which I can hardly answer, because I have tried with quite a number of these small settlers to ascertain what their feelings are, and it appears to me that when they put in their trees they have no idea that they will be infested with the codlin-moth. They do not grow them for commercial purposes, and are satisfied if they get sufficient apples for themselves. They say, " We are not growing apples to make money out of them" ; and it is just these places which are the hotbeds of disease. Ido not think any instructor would persuade them to take the proper precautions. 51. Mr. Buchanan.} You mean that nothing would do it but compulsion?— Nothing but compulsion. No instructor could persuade a man that he could make a revenue out of twenty appletrees, and many of these people have not more than twenty trees. I believe they would sooner cut those trees down than do what the instructor told them ; but if you have a man with 3 or 4 acres of orchard he knows the value of taking the proper measures. 52. Mr. Brown.] Do you cultivate between the trees?—My trees are 18ft. apart, and we cultivate for 3 ft. or 4 ft. round each tree. 53. Does the codlin-moth breed in the grass?—No, not at all. 54. If there were a piece of board or stump of a tree on the grass would they breed in that ?— Yes. It is surprising where they breed. In my place I have had a hand-barrow standing near a tree, and we have found the grub concealed in a crack in the timber where the handle was joined on. Only last Saturday my boy brought in a prop, and we found three grubs under the bark, and I told him to destroy it. But they never conceal themselves in the ground. 55. I was coming to the question of whether it is that the more you cultivate the less likelihood there is of the moth ? —I do not think that the cultivation makes the slightest difference in the grub. 56. Hon. the Chairman.] The cultivation improves the trees : does that make any difference? —I do not know that the moth can distinguish between a good tree and a bad tree. We have found them in the healthiest trees. 57. Mr. Buchanan] Did you visit any of the Auckland orchards?—l did not. 58. What comparison would you make between the state of the orchards in Auckland and, say, in Palmerston North, with regard to these pests, from what you were told by fruit-people in Auckland ?—I should say that the Auckland people have had the codlin-moth for so long, and done so little to get rid of it, that the place is simply teeming with it, whereas in the Palmerston district we have not had it so long, and the people have commenced to try and keep it in check. The difference between the two is very great. Ido not think there is a single orchard in the Palmerston district that would compare with Auckland orchards in this respect. The Auckland people do not appear to have done anything, and do not seem very likely to do it. 59. Have you any special reason for saying that they have not done much ?—I am guided by the remarks that the auctioneers have made, and also by the state of the fruit sent into the market. That was enough to satisfy me that the people who grow fruit there have not taken sufficient interest in their business or they would not send such fruit into the market. We have given better fruit to our pigs than they send into the market, and I cannot conceive why people send such fruit to be sold when they know that they are spreading disease all over the country. 60. Might there not be climatic differences which would give you an advantage in Palmerston ? —There may be. The Auckland climate may be warmer; but it is pretty warm up in our district too. There are orchards there surrounded with macrocarpa hedges, and it is like an oven inside them, and warm enough for any breeding purposes. I think it simply amounts to this : that the Auckland people have not been alive to the destructiveness of the moth until now it has got the upper hand. 61. Mr. Lang.] What size are your trees ?—My highest trees are 14 ft. or 15 fc. high. We have been keeping our trees down as much as possible. 62. In spraying it is absolutely necessary that the fruit should be covered with the Paris green, is it not? —The object is to so apply the Paris green that the egg shall be got at and destroyed. 63. To completely cover the fruit ?—My experience is that the grub will be found in the eye of the fruit or on the sunny side of it. It is very rare that the grub is found in other parts. In picking apples, those we find infested are either infested on the top—that is, the sunny side or in the eye. 64. Mr. Kirk.] When the deposit was on the eye was not that the sunny point ? —I can hardly say. 65. Mr. Lang.] The Paris green poisons the grub?— Yes. 66. If so, the apple must be completely covered with the poison?— Yes. 67. Do you think that by legislation you could compel people to spray their trees so much that they would cover the whole or the greater portion of the tree ?—I think that a proper spray-pump would spray the whole of a tree. 68. I mean could you by legislation compel people who were doing it against their will to do that ? —That would rest with themselves. If a man will not spray in his own interest, and does not make an effort to cure his trees, you cannot compel him. 69. Is it not difficult to thoroughly spray a large tree ?—No, it is really not difficult,