No. 7. . DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 639 



Home-made lime-sulphur solution to be used, when diluted, as 

 a summer spray on apples, may be prepared as follows: Boil 16 

 pounds of sulphur and 8 pounds of lime with 10 gallons of water 

 for about an hour, finishing with 8 gallons of concentrated solution. 

 Then strain anl dilute with water to make 200 gallons of spray. 

 In each 50 gallons of spray there are 4 lbs. of sulphur, which accord- 

 ing to our experiments is about the right strength for apples during 

 the growing season. 



If it seems desirable to make it up in larger quantities 50 pounds 

 of lime and 100 pounds of sulphur may be used with enough water 

 to leave 50 gallons of concentrated solution when the boiling is done. 

 For summer spraying two gallons of this solution at this strength will 

 control apple scab, leaf spot, and cedar rust fully as well as Bor- 

 deaux mixture and with injury which is very slight compared to 

 that of Bordeaux. 



For specific directions for the preparation of concentrated lime- 

 sulphur at home, your own experiment station's bulletins by Prof. 

 Stewart, contain the latest and best information. 



Numerous brands of commercial lime-sulphur for fungicidal and 

 insecticidal uses are now to be found on the market. Most of these 

 test 30 degrees to 38 degrees on the Baume spindle and for summer 

 use on apples are to be used at a strength of 1^ gallons to 50 gallons 

 of water. Such a dilution gives us about 4 pounds of sulphur to each 

 50 gallons of spray and is equivalent to the home-made solution 

 diluted to the before mentioned summer strength. All of the com- 

 mercial solutions, which we have used, gave fairly uniform results 

 and compared favorably with the home-made solution. The chief 

 difference between the home-made and commercial preparations seems 

 to be in that while the former is much the cheaper, it is also the 

 more troublesome. 



RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS 



Experiments comparing the lime-sulphur preparations with Bor- 

 deaux mixture in the treatment of apple diseases have been con- 

 ducted by the Bureau of Plant Industry in Virginia, Nebraska, Mis- 

 souri and Arkansas. Excepting bitter rot and blotch, all diseases of 

 the fruit and foliage in all the experiments were as thoroughly con- 

 trolled by the lime sulphur solution as by the Bordeaux mixture. 

 The lime-sulphur produced very little or no russeting of the fruit and 

 no serious foliage injury while the Bordeaux injured both fruit and 

 foliage of Ben Davis, Jonathan, Yellow Newtown, and some other 

 varieties. The lime-sulphur sprayed fruit was invariably superior 

 in appearance to that sprayed with Bordeaux. 



Experiments for the control of apple scab on Winesap were 

 conducted in Virginia during 1009 with the following results. On 

 the plots sprayed with lime-sulphur solution less than one per cent, 

 of the fruit was affected with scab; on that sprayed with Bordeaux 

 mixture about two per cent, of the fruit was affected; and on the 

 check or unsprayed plot thirty per cent, of the fruit was scabby. 



During the same year similar experiments were conducted in 

 Michigan with like resulis. The scab was held down to four per 

 cent, of the crop by the lime-sulphur solution and to three and one- 

 half per cent, by Bordeaux mixture, while eighty per cent, of the 

 unsprayed fruit of the same variety (Wagner) was affected. 

 41 



