64 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



suddenly the blossoms will come out in a hurry and you will 

 be caught with your dormant spraying unfinished. There is 

 this danger, but I prefer to run the risk and kill the two bugs 

 with one spray. 



Question : And you don't get any injury when you delay the 

 dormant spray? 



Mr. Fletcher: No, except there are a few buds blasted. 

 When this spray is applied we cannot see the blossom at all ; 

 the cluster bud, or winter bud, is barely open, so you can see 

 the tips of the green leaves and possibly the pink of the petals. 



Question : What is the strength ? 



Mr. Fletcher: The regular strength of 1-7, one part of 

 concentrated lime-sulphur solution, testing 2^2. degrees, to seven 

 of water. The second spraying that I give is right after the 

 petals fall. I have never seen a scab spot in my orchard, even 

 on a Winesap or Ben Davis. Ten miles from me, across the 

 Blue Ridge, they have as much trouble from scab as you do, 

 and have to give one spraying before the blossoms open, while 

 the buds show pink. This shows the utter futility of any 

 man advising another on these matters, unless he knows the 

 conditions. So I omit the pink spray and apply the first spray 

 after the blossoms fall, the second, ten days later, and the third, 

 nine weeks after the blossoms fall, this being for the second 

 brood of codling moth. These three sprays usually give rea- 

 sonable protection. 



Codling Moth and Rosy Aphis. Our greatest pest is the 

 codl-ing moth. It fairly makes my heart sick when I go to the 

 cull shed to see the large proportion of apples, otherwise 

 perfect, which the worm has made unmarketable. We not 

 only have two broods there, where you have mostly one — two 

 per cent of your first brood, I understand, goes into a second 

 brood — but also our moths emerge over a longer period, so it 

 is a continual fight between the time the petals fall until the 

 first of August. We are doing pretty well if we can get out 

 with apples 95 per cent free from worms. 



We have little trouble wMth green aphis except on young 

 trees, one to four years set. .After trying various ways of 

 spraying, I have adopted the method of dipping the ends of 

 the twigs into a pail of tobacco decoction. The aphids are on 

 the tips of the branches ; a man with a bucket of tobacco decoc- 



