Winter MectiniT. 297" 



•^i) 



try some other method. The best way is to go over your orchard in the 

 beginning of the year and determine what you want to do, and think about 

 it. I have seen some larmers spray with three or four different solu- 

 tions, and spend a pile of money, and in the latter part of the year, 

 when there was no Bitter Rot, they feel mad because there was no 

 Bitter Rot. I didn't tell them to use three or four different solutions. 



If you keep on spraying, and if you have the heat like we did this 

 summer, you might get burned apples ; but I claim that burned apples 

 arc better than Bitter Rot any time. 



Mr. Baxter of Illinois — Now, I believe that you will find that the 

 Bitter Rot in apples is very similar to the Black Rot in grapes. It begins 

 in a small way by a small speck appearing on the fruit and enlarging by 

 circles. It is the same with the Black Rot in grapes. We have been 

 studying it since 1864, and we have studied it all the time, and at last we 

 found that the Bordeaux mixture would control it, and we have con- 

 trolled the rot completely. We are not afraid of it at all, and I am satis- 

 fied it will be the same way with the Bitter Rot in the apples. Now re- 

 member, this is only a preventive. It is not a cure, and if you want to save 

 your apples, just as we save our grapes, you must not wait until the 

 Bitter Rot appears there, but you have got to spray in the beginning. 

 i\nd when is the best to do this? Immediately after your apples or 

 formed. Then it is not necessary to spray again unless the weather con- 

 ditions are such — if you have heavy rains, such as to wash this off your 

 apples, you want to spray again and keep it up. 



Why were these apples scorched this year? Was it because the 

 mixture was too strongly made? No. I know why it was. It was on ac- 

 count of the long dry spell. We have had the same experience with the 

 peach, plum and with the grapes. If you have noticed, when there is a 

 long dry spell and no washing rains afterwards, simply moisture in the 

 shape of dews, why you find this rust. I have noticed it for a number 

 cf years. Now, then, I contend that this Bitter Rot cannot develop unless 

 you have moisture. The Black Rot in grapes cannot develop without 

 moisture. Now, the question is, what kind of moisture ? It certainly will 

 not develop if you have heavy sweeping rains. The only moisture that 

 will develop it in connection with heat is dew or sprinkles, very light 

 rains, so as to not wash the spores thoroughly. If you have a beating rain 

 it will wash the spores to the ground, and there they remain, and will 

 remain, if the weather comes free of winds ; but if the weather afterwards 

 becomes foggy and hot, why these spores will rise again, and will be 

 certain to infect the apple. It will the grapes ; it will the plums, or any- 

 thing else. Now I will venture to stake my reputation on it, that you can't 

 produce Bitter Rot, nor Black Rot, with any amount of heat, provided that 



