WESTERN NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 449 



will already have been robbed of its moisture, before the fruiting season, and a failure 

 to produce satisfactory seeds and fruits is inevitable. 



Another method of conserving moisture is to shade the land, and if this is done with 

 growing crops as clover and the like, the amount of water which is evaporated from 

 the leaves is greater than that which is conserved by the shading. So where the 

 object is to conserve the moisture for the tree when it is fruiting, it is not wise to have 

 growing crops in the orchard. 



Mulching of the soil with straw or other coarse material cannot be practiced in any 

 large way, so although valuable, little dependence can be placed on this method. In 

 bearing orchards it should be done if at all about the last of June. The conservation 

 of moisture by surface culture has been found to be eminently successful. The 

 enlarging of the capillary tubes at the surface prevents the water from rising, also 

 shades the land and keeps it cool, thereby preventing to a large extent surface 

 evaporation. 



Some experiments conducted during the winter in a warm room out of the direct 

 rays of the sun gave the following results : 



On plots cultivated about one and a half inches deep, two thousand pounds of water 

 less evaporated daily on soil of a similar character and under identical conditions 

 which had no surface culture. 



On a heavy clay soil the evaporation from the cultured plot per day was four thous- 

 and pounds less than from the uncultured. 



On a clay loam it was four thousand four hundred pounds per day less. 



On a light garden soil it was two thousand five hundred and fifty pounds less on the 

 cultivated plot per acre than on that which was not cultivated. 



It will readily be seen what avast influence the daily cultivation had on the moisture 

 of the soil. Some experiments conducted several years ago with a mixture of equal 

 parts by weight of salt and plaster applied to the land at the rate of four thousand 

 pounds per acre conserved the moisture of the first four inches to the amount of fifteen 

 tons of water per acre: that is to say the soil which had been treated with this mixture 

 contained about two weeks after the mixture had been sown fifteen tons of water per 

 acre in the first four inches more than the adjoining plots which were not treated. This 

 amount of water it is true is not large, but it was large enough during a drought, when 

 the experiments were conducted, to furnish enough extra moisture to the growing oats 

 to be easily discernible by the growth of the plant. There is not the slightest doubt 

 but what a weekly surface cultivation of orchards from June until the last of August 

 greatly conserves the water in the soil, while at the same time culture sets free plant 

 food, keeps the lower sirata of the soil cool and moist. Wherever the conditions do not 

 forbid surface cultivation it should be practiced extensively in orchards for the three- 

 fold purpose of conserving moisture, preparing plant food and shading that portion of 

 the soil which is occupied by the roots of the growing plants. 



SOME EXPERIENCES IN 1893 IN TREATING PEARS TO PREVENT 



PEAR SCAB. 



BY PROP. S. A. BEACH, NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL, EXPERIMENT STATION, GENEVA, N. Y. 



At the New York State Experiment Station, in 1893, some experiments in treating 

 pear trees with Bordeaux mixture for the prevention of pear scab were very successful 

 in accomplishing the desired objects. The plan of the experiments was: 



1. To test the efficacy of dilute Bordeaux mixture against pear scab. 



(In these experiments the formula used for the Bordeaux mixture was four pounds 

 of copper sulphate to forty-five gallons of the mixture. The necessary amount of lime 

 was determined by the potassium-ferrocyanide test.) 



2. To compare the efficacy of three sprayings before the blossoms open with two 

 sprayings before the blossoms open. 



A large orchard near the experiment station, situated on the upland about two miles 

 west of Seneca lake, offered a very favorable opportunity for the proposed investigation, 

 and the owners, Messrs. E. Smith & Sons, very kindly offered the use of it, free of charge 

 for this purpose. Some varieties in the orchard, being particularly susceptible to the 

 attacks of the scab, had produced comparatively little first-class fruit for several 

 years on account of tbe scab. Two of these varieties. White Doyenne and Seckle, were 



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