SPRAYING PROBLEMS 153 



motor sprayers for the large farms, horse sprayers for 

 the small; to help the smallholders and the thousands 

 who had never sprayed at all? To meet the emer- 

 gency last year the Food Production Department dis- 

 tributed 7000 knapsack sprayers and 40,000 cases of 

 chemicals to public bodies and individuals. 



Many plans were devised on the spur of the moment; 

 each hamlet, village, and town had a problem to 

 solve; some* solved it remarkably well and others not 

 at all. It wanted organization, forethought, and 

 skill. In some cases the villagers clubbed together 

 to purchase their own material, and each man sprayed 

 his own ; in others the squire or parish council or 

 the allotment association made the provision of the 

 requisite implements and labour; in other cases 

 borough councils provided the implements and made 

 no charge for labour. To-day and to-morrow we 

 must aim at economy in material and labour. In the 

 main two systems emerge: the co-operative system, 

 where individuals band together, take the initiative, 

 and share the expense; and communal, where every- 

 thing is done for the community and a charge placed 

 on the local funds. 



The greatest hope for the progress of the spraying 

 movement among allotment holders and smallholders 

 generally seems to be in the development of com- 

 munal spraying. This might be carried out in the 

 future by a motor equipment. Just as a municipality 

 possesses a fire-station and every appliance for com- 

 bating fire, county councils or municipal authorities 

 might erect a central mixing-station where barrels 

 of Burgundy mixture could be prepared, and these 

 and the necessary sprayers taken to the different allot- 

 ment grounds, allotted areas, or farms the equipment 

 to be employed for bush-fruit and small fruit trees for 

 both summer and winter spraying. Special outfits 



