New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 369 



been somewhat injured by canker. All bloomed very full during 

 the season of 1900 when the experiment was made. Three trees 

 were sprayed in each lot. (1) Sprayed Wednesday forenoon, 

 May 16, with Bordeaux mixture and Paris green when the bloom 

 had not yet fully opened. The spraying was rather light. (2) 

 The trees sprayed when in full bloom. At harvest time it was 

 found that the apples were fewer on the trees sprayed in bloom, 

 but that they were larger and finer. If any conclusion is to be 

 drawn from this experiment it seems to be that the spraying in 

 bloom was a thinning process. Mr. Freeman writes: "My con- 

 clusions drawn from experiments last season are that the yield of 

 both my Twenty Ounce and King sprayed in full bloom was very 

 much diminished ; in fact, was nearly a failure. What few fruits 

 were left were fine. I had a full blossom." 



THE RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENTS OF 1800. 



The experiments of 1900 neither prove nor disprove the value 

 of spraying fruit trees when they are in bloom. In a year when 

 sprayed and unsprayed trees alike give good crops, the results of 

 spraying experiments are likely to be unsatisfactory. The tests 

 must be extended over several years before it will be safe tO' draw 

 definite conclusions. So far as the experiments of the past sea- 

 son are concerned, however, two general statements may be 

 made: 



1. In general, the trees sprayed when in full bloom bore no 

 better crops than those sprayed either before the blossoms opened 

 or after the fruit had set. 



2. There was no apparent injury to the blossoms on trees 

 sprayed when in full bloom. 



The only exceptions to the first statement were the Maiden 

 Blush and Twenty Ounce trees in the orchard of Harry Jackson 

 and the results in Mr. Bugbee's orchard. The fuller set of fruit 

 on the east sides of Mr. Jackson's trees than on the west sides 

 was a marked difference in favor of spraying in bloo'm. The com- 

 parative fruitfulness of many other Maiden Blush and Twenty' 

 24 



