EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 153 



the work has been properly done, the benefits have been very marked. 

 Not only have the participants become firmly convinced of the necessity 

 of and the profits from spraying, but they have become its earnest ad- 

 vocates, and spraying centers have thus become established which can- 

 not fail to have a markedly favorable influence upon the development of 

 the fruit interests of the locality. 



Without going into details, it can be said that the information that 

 has thus been disseminated regarding the control of such troublesome 

 insects as the San Jose scale, codling moth, plum curculio, grape berry- 

 moth, rose-chafer and destructive fungous diseases like the apple-scab, 

 brown-rot, the various leaf-blights, peach leaf-curl and the black-rot and 

 mildews of the grape, together with the fact that the leading growers in 

 the fruit belt have not only been very quick to avail themselves of it 

 but have been very thorough in their work of spraying, has resulted in 

 saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. 



As one instance of this work the cooperative experiments in the Lawton 

 grape district may be mentioned. My attention was first called to the 

 serious losses in that section from the black-rot in 1905, and arrange- 

 ments were at once made to demonstrate that, with proper attention 

 in the way of spraying, the loss could be so restricted as to be hardly 

 noticeable. My own experience with this disease in Missouri before com- 

 ing to Michigan, and the results obtained during the last twenty years 

 in the experiments carried on by the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 and the experiment stations in several states, satisfied me that there 

 would be no difliculty in controlling the disease if owners of vineyards 

 in which the disease appeared could be impressed, first, with the danger 

 which threatened their crops unless steps were taken to control it; 

 second, with the fact that they could find in Bordeaux mixture a cheap, 

 safe and eft'ectual remedy; and third, with the importance of not only 

 spraying their vines at the proper intervals but of doing the work so 

 thoroughly as to cover every fniit and leaf with the spraying material. 



At first many of the growers were quite skeptical, claiming that they 

 had had no trouble from the disease for fifteen years or more and that, 

 although the climatic conditions might be such as would favor the de- 

 velopment of black-rot for a single season, the weather during the period 

 when the rot prevails was almost always hot and dry, a condition very 

 unfavorable for its development and hence the chances were so strongl}' 

 against the disease proving injurious in other years, that it would not 

 pay them to go to the expense of procuring spraying outfits and spray- 

 ing their vineyards. 



Others scofted at the very idea of its being the dreaded black-rot, or, 

 if it was, that it could be controlled by spraying. There being no ques- 

 tion as to the nature of the disease, or to the proper treatment, it was 

 thought best not to run any risk but to at once undertake cooperative, 

 demonstration work. Mr. F. E. Morrill, of Paw Paw, and Mr. D. L. 

 Thornton, of Lawton, agreeing to undertake the work under my direc- 

 tion, a series of experiments were planned for each. They were asked 

 to set aside portions of their vineyards which were to be divided into 

 six plots which were to receive from two to six applications each. The 

 weather during a considerable portion of June and July was wet and 

 muggy which, on the one hand; made spraying difficult and lessened its 

 effects, while on the other it favored the development of the black-rot. 

 20 



