572 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



raiser will actually appear. One does not know if his buildings will 

 burn, yet he insures them. We know that in four years out of five 

 some serious injury of insects or fungi may be confidently expected, 

 and it is the part of wisdom to insure against it. Last year, 1894, 

 was a season of remarkable invasion of apple-scab fungus, and those 

 persons who sprayed their orchards thoroughly had phenomenal 

 results. These experiences, aided by many publications upon the 

 subject, so advertised the value of the sprays that much more spray- 

 ing was done in the State this year than ever before. But it has so 

 happened, probably because of the dry spring, that comparatively 

 few invasions of enemies have occurred this year ; and the sprays 

 iave, generally, given small results. There has now arisen, there- 

 fore, considerable indifference, or even opposition, to spraying, and 

 I expect to see much less of it next spring than I saw this spring. 

 If, then, next year should be prolific in insects and diseases, there 

 will be a few orchards here and there which will reward the fore- 

 thought of the owner, and very many others which will be monu- 

 ments of the results of neglect. It is a common fault with farmers 

 that they draw their conclusions from the behavior or experiences of 

 each recurring season, and do not consider the aggregate results of a 

 series of years. Every operation should rest upon some fundamental 

 reason or philosophy, rather than upon any single half understood 

 experience. 



A fruit-grower wrote me as follows last July : 



" You are always advising people to spray their orchards. All my 

 neighbors spent much time and money last spring in spraying, but I 

 did not spray and my fruit is just as good as theirs." 



" I do not doubt your experience," I replied ; " this has been a 

 dry year, and there has been little scab fungus. But you should 

 have insured your orchard against probable loss by spraying it." 



A few days later, the same correspondent wrote again : '* We 

 lave had a heavy rain, but it seemed to be poisonous to my potatoes 

 and they are all blackened and wilted. What shall I do?" 



I hope that there was no feeling of sarcasm in my reply : 



" I am sorry to hear of your loss, but it is now too late to avert 

 the calamity. Your potatoes were not insured." 



3. Spraying is of some value every year, upon apples^ pears^ 

 j)lums and quinces. — Even this year, nearly all the sprayed orchards 

 are carrying a better foliage than those which are untreated, and 

 where codlin-moth, bud-moth, case-bearer, and other insects are 



