66 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



with lime and sulphur, it increases the effectiveness of the latter 

 as a fungicide. This can now be bought in quantities for ten 

 cents a pound or less, and comes under a guaranteed analysis 

 of the per cent of arsenic oxide it contains. This runs from 

 14 to 20; usually about three pounds to fifty gallons of liquid 

 is sufficient to destroy insect life. The bordeaux mixture has 

 been for many years the great standby as a fungicide, and I 

 bear testimony to its worth for that purpose, but as we have 

 used more powerful spray apparatus and consequently done 

 a more thorough job. we have found increasing difficulty with 

 the fruit being rusted. This was not as serious, of course, as 

 the scab, but it was a serious objection, and such varieties as 

 the Greening. Mcintosh and Ben Davis were particularly 

 susceptible. The experience of the last two years has fully 

 demonstrated that the commercial lime and sulphur mixtures 

 testing about t,2° Beaume, diluted with 30 gallons of water, 

 are as efficient as the bordeaux in controlling scab, and at that 

 strength will not harm the foliage, and even at greater strength 

 there is no rusting of the fruit. 



To illustrate the importance of thorough spraying at the right 

 time, I will cite the work of Dr. Felt in my orchard the season 

 of 1909. Many will remember that Professor Melander con- 

 tended that in order to destroy the codling moth, there must be 

 a coarse spray, thrown with a sufficient force to penetrate the 

 lower calyx cavity of the apple. He asserted that it was nec- 

 essary to have 200 lbs. pressure at the pump in order to do 

 this, and his work showed clearly that such spraying done just 

 when blossoms had fallen gave better than 90 per cent of 

 worm-free fruit. If it were true that this pressure was neces- 

 sary, it was very important that orchardists should know it. 

 With an unbiased mind, only desirous to determine the facts, 

 Dr. E. P. Felt, State Entomologist of New York, undertook to 

 prove or disprove the truth of this contention, by very careful 

 experiments in my own orchard, as well as those of Mr. W. 

 H, Hart at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. With the exception of some 

 minor detail, the work was substantially the same in both 

 orchards, and being familiar with that in my own. I will de- 

 scribe it. The trees were 17 years set, bearing for the most 

 part a full crop, and the orchard had been thoroughly sprayed 

 for a dozen vears. In fact. \\t could find verv few of the 



