354 EEroRT of the Horticultural Department op the 



get it repealed. So firmly convinced were ther of the advan- 

 tages of the prohibited way of spraying that they appealed to 

 the Cornell University and New York Agricultural Experiment 

 Stations, at Ithaca and Geneva, respectively, to make tests com- 

 paring spraying in bloom with spraying at other times. The 

 Station Directors replied that such tests could not be made 

 without violating the law. The matter was then presented to 

 the legislature with the result that the law was so amended as 

 to permit the experiment stations to spray trees in bloom for 

 experimental purposes. We have seen no record of any sys- 

 tematic tests along this line excepting the accounts of work 

 on those phases of the question which relate to the poisoning 

 of bees by spraying poisons on the blossoms, and to the part 

 bees play in the setting of fruit. 



The problem which the stations have been asked to solve is 

 not a simple one. These are some of the questions which it 

 brings up: 



1. Does spraying in bloom give superior protection to the fruit 

 against the attack of insects and diseases? 



2. Does it increase the yield? 



3. What is the effect on blossoms which are hit by the spfay? 



4. To what extent are insects helpful in setting fruit? 



5. What is the effect on insects which visit the sprayed 

 blossoms? 



The results of the investigations which were conducted in 1900 

 are conclusive on some points. This is especially true of the 

 laboratory tests. The field tests, however, are generally incon- 

 clusive as to the practical results of spraying orchards in bloom. 



When the conditions of the season of 1900 are considered in 

 relation to the points under investigation it is not surprising that 

 the tests of the influence of the treatment on the yield were not 

 altogether conclusive. In some seasons the conditions are very 

 favorable to the development of the apple-scab fungus. There 

 is reason to believe that in 189S this fungus was quite destructive 



