250 



STATE BOARD OF. AGRICULTURE. 



quick lime slaked) into the 44 gallons of water in the barrel. Stir well and spray. 

 The remainder of the tin pails or crocks can be used one at a time and refilled occa- 

 sionally so that a stock is always on hand rea"dy for use. 



The poison prepared in this way has many advantages over that mixed directly into 

 the barrel. Much of the Paris green that we buy is slightly caustic from the presence 

 of free arsenious acid. The lime neutralizes the free acid and greatly reduces the danger 

 of "burning" the foliage. It also serves to show where the work has been done and 

 what is more to the point, where certain spots have been overlooked. It also helps .to 

 make the poison cling to the foliage, and greatly facilitiates the mixing of the poison 

 into the water in the barrel, overcoming the tendency to collect on top of the water in 

 bubbles and scum. 



Fig. 15. — Banding a tree for canker-worm. Second operation. 



So many complaints that spraying is not effective have come to us that a trial was 

 made on May 25th, and 27th, again to test the spray. President Snyder kindly offered 

 the use of his orchard for the test. The orchard had just been purchased and had been 

 well supplied with canker-worms in 1900. The weather was anything but suitable 

 for the purpose, being rainy during the latter part of May and the first part of June. 



On the 25th and 27th of May, most of the trees were sprayed with Paris green accord- 

 ing to the directions given above. The worms were present in force. It rained on the 

 25th and stopped the work. On June 3d the work was repeated, all the trees being 

 sprayed, Mr. E. R. Bennett doing the actual spraying in each case. A slight "burning" 

 of the foliage of a few trees was noticed, owing to the wet conditions during the 

 work, and the fact that in one case, the barrel had been refilled before it was empty, 

 resulting in a stronger mixture than was intended. The damage was not in any way 

 serious and could not be seen after a little time. At the time of the second spraying the 

 worms were greatly reduced in numbers. On June 10th. a visit was made to the orchard, 



