6o AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



"Place the lime in a barrel and pour on enough water (about 

 3 gals, to 20 lbs.) to start it slaking and to keep the sulphur 

 off the bottom of the barrel. Then add the sulphur which 

 should be worked through a sieve to break up the lumps and 

 finally enough water to slake the lime into 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 15 minutes are required 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 condition of 

 precipitated sulphur and the violent boiling makes a good me- 

 chanical mixture of the lime and sulphur. Only a small per- 

 centage of the sulphur — enough to improve the adhesiveness 

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

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

 with the lime and at the end of 30 to 40 minutes enough of 

 the reddish liquid is produced to burn peach foliage and even 

 apple foliage in some cases. Hence the necessity for cooling 

 the mixture as soon as the lime is slaked. 



The mixture should be strained through a sieve of 20 meshes 

 to the inch in order to remove the coarse particles of lime, but 

 all the sulphur should be worked through the strainer. 



The amount of water required to make the best mixture de- 

 pends largely upon the lime. Some grades of lime respond 

 quickly and take a large quantity of water, while others heat 

 up slowly and are easily "drowned" if too much water is 

 added at once. Hot water may be used to good advantage in 

 preparing the mixture with sluggish lime, but with quick act- 

 ing lime hot water is not necessary and is more likely to bring 

 too much of the sulphur into solution. If desired the mixture 

 may be kept for a week or more without deterioration but 

 should be thoroughly stirred before using." 



In applying the self-boiled mixture the spray pump should 

 be equipped with a good agitator as the mixture settles to the 

 bottom of the tank. In order to be evenly applied it must be 

 kept well agitated. 



