430 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE- 



should first be worked through a sieve to break up the lumps, 

 and finally enough water to slake the lime to a paste. Consider- 

 able stirring is necessary to prevent caking on the bottom. After 

 the violent boiling which accompanies the slaking of the lime is 

 over, the mixture should be diluted ready for spraying, or at 

 least enough cold water added to stop the cooking. Five to fif- 

 teen minutes are required for the process, according to whether 

 the lime is quick-acting or sluggish. The intense heat seems to 

 break up the particles of sulphur into about the physical con- 

 dition of precipitated sulphur and the violent boiling makes a 

 good mechanical mixture of the lime and sulphur. Only a small 

 percentage of the sulphur — enough to improve the adhesiveness 

 of the mixture — goes into solution, but if the hot mass is allowed 

 to stand as a thick paste the sulphur continues to unite with the 

 lime, and at the end of thirty or forty minutes enough of the 

 reddish liquid is produced to burn peach foliage in some cases. 

 Hence the necessity for cooling the mixture as soon as the lime 

 is well slaked. The finely divided sulphur in mechanical mix- 

 ture with the lime is depended upon for the fungicidal action 

 rather than the sulphide in solution, the latter being harmful to 

 foliage except in very dilute form." 



The mixture must be strained and particular care taken to 

 wash all of the particles of sulphur through the strainer. The 

 form of strainer, with the sharply inclined bottom, described in 

 the foot-note on p. 425. is very satisfactory for this purpose. 

 Maine lime is rather slow to heat up but slakes well and thor- 

 oughly after it is once started. Therefore, when employed for 

 this purpose a few dippers of hot water may be used at first to 

 start the lime ofif briskly. If all hot water is used there is some 

 danger of bringing too much sulphur into solution and injury 

 to the foliage results when applied to the more tender varieties. 

 The diluted mixture may be kept for a week or more without 

 deterioration. On account of the character of the mixture great 

 care must be taken to see that it is constantly and thoroughly 

 agitated while being applied. Otherwise much of the .suspended 

 sulphur will settle to the bottom. 



Homc-cookcd concentrated lime-sulphur. For the average 

 farmer using only a small quantity it is probably wiser to pur- 

 chase the factory-cooked concentrated material for dilution than 

 to attempt its manufacture himself. However, in the case of 

 large orchards where the expense for the ready-made article 



