42 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



readily calculate that under these conditions one cannot expect 

 to spray more than 600 to 800 full grown trees with one outfit 

 and hope to control apple scab in an epidemic year. 



Equipment needed. Most of you will doubtless raise the 

 objection that it would be very expensive to keep two spraying 

 outfits for an orchard of 1,200 to 1,500 trees, to say nothing of 

 the difficulty involved in supplying teams and men at such a 

 busy time of year. My only answer to the objection is that it 

 must be done that way if you are to secure the best results. 

 The only alternative is to put out daily more gallons of spray 

 per outfit or to find a more rapid way of applying the fungi- 

 cide. Some of the items that we have found of importance in 

 permitting a larger output I wish to discuss a little more fully. 



Equipment for Rapid Filling. My personal experience the 

 past summer in helping perform extensive experiments has 

 brought forcibly to my attention the great importance of being 

 in readiness for making an application. One of our experi- 

 ments was located on the farm of a progressive orchardist in 

 Wayne county. The other experiment was located out of the 

 apple section and on a farm where the apple was a secondary 

 crop — in other words, an ideal place for our purpose so far 

 as disease was concerned. In the first case every provision was 

 made to keep the men and outfits working at full capacity. 

 If there was the slightest tendency for the ground to be heavy, 

 three horses were put on the 200-gallon gasoline sprayer. 

 When the spray tank was empty the horses were run from the 

 field to the central filling point. At the central filling point 

 every provision was made for very rapid work. As a matter 

 of convenience powdered arsenate of lead was used. This had 

 been weighed out in paper bags several days previous. The 

 lime-sulphur solution was allowed to run out in a large tub and 

 could be dipped up without any delay whatever. A gasoline 

 engine located at a nearby spring kept a very large supply tank 

 full of water. This tank was elevated on a platform and 

 opened into a second tank of 200 gallons capacity. As soon 

 as the empty sprayer reached the filling station one man made 

 it his business to attend to the lime-sulphur solution and the 

 other to stirring up the arsenate of lead. The outlet from the 

 200-gallon tank to the sprayer was five or six inches in diam- 

 eter. The young men who attended to these operations were 

 sons of the owner and a part of the firm. The result was that 



