No. 7. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 227 



its expense, costing $20.00. If the trees are tall a tower is a great 

 convenience and causes better work to be done, as the operator 

 can stand above and throw the spray downward into the calix cups. 

 As to the stationary part of a spraying outfit, is very important 

 if the orchard is of good size to have a building of sufficient size 

 to cover a boiler, cooking tanks, mixing tanks, various materials 

 to be used in the compounding of the various spray mixtures. If 

 this can be located on a side hill, that elevated platforms can be 

 had, that the material can be run by gravity from the cooking 

 tanks to the graduated dilution tanks, from there to the tank on 

 the wagon. This does away with much of the heavy and disagree- 

 able part of the work. Then if you have an elevated tank or reser 

 voir to hold the water supply much time and labor is saved. Many 

 of these conveniences can be had with but little outlay of money, 

 and spraying will no longer be the disagreeable work of the past. 



Material 



I do not wish to condemn any material, or do I wish to adver- 

 tise any article manufactured and placed upon the market. But 

 my firm conviction is, all things considered, that the lime and 

 sulphur solution, Avhen properly prepared, is the best and most 

 economical spray of the present time. It is one of the best we have 

 for San Jose Scale, it destroys the eggs of the Tent caterpiller, 

 canker worm and many other insects that are injurious to our trees. 

 It is one of the best fungicides that we have. It is a specific for 

 Peach leaf curl. Then as a summer spray it is taking the place 

 of the copper salts, being cheaper and better as it does not in- 

 jure foliage or russet the fruit, and if one of the arsenites is added 

 it does the work of the two with but one operation. 



As to whether the Commercial, or the home-boiled shall be used, 

 depends upon conditions. For the farmer who has but small 

 orchards, or is not prepared to cook the material, the Commercial 

 solution is more convenient and I believe more reliable. But for 

 the man who has large acreage the home-boiled is much cheaper, 

 if he has the proper outfit he can manufacture it for about one- 

 third the cost of the commercial, or one cent per gallon. The 

 formula for the home-boiled is thirty pounds sulphur, forty pounds 

 lime, 100 gallons of water. 



This can be used only on dormant trees. If the Commercial solu- 

 tion is used it must be of sufficient strength. As recommended by 

 the manufacturers, one to eleven is too weak; it should be one to 

 eight, at which strength I find it to give satisfaction. As a summer 

 spray it must be diluted about one to forty or one to fifty, this is 

 for apple, for peach this is too strong, I have known heavy losses 

 to occur from using this strength. In fact, I consider it unsafe 

 to use on the peach as a summer spray. As a summer spray for 

 the peach I use the self-cooked, using ten pounds sulphur, fifteen 

 pounds lime and 100 gallons of water. For the apple I use sixteen 

 pounds sulphur, twenty-five pounds lime to 100 gallons of water. 

 This strength is safe, and I believe it will in the near future super- 

 cede Bordeaux mixture as it does not russet the apple as does the 

 Bordeaux mixture, and when used on peach as soon as the calix 

 drops from the small peach it reduces fungi to a minimum, and when 

 arsenate of lead is added it destroys a large part of curculio. It 

 appears that the arsenate of lead also possesses fungicidal proper- 



