82 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



devised, we shall, perhaps, be ready to exclaim with J. H. 

 Hale, the veteran peach grower of Connecticut and Georgia, 

 "Blessed be the San Jose scale!" It has compelled us to 

 spray with the lime, sulphur and salt. 



One application of lime, sulphur and salt each winter will do 

 more for the neglected orchard than can be done in any other 

 way by the same expenditure of cash and energy. It not 

 only destroys San Jose scale, but it also destroys the branch 

 form of wooly aphis, the eggs of the green aphis, the pear- 

 leaf blister mite, the hibernating larvae of the prune twig- 

 miner, probably the hibernating larvae of the bud moth, to- 

 gether with most other insects which may chance to be 

 wintering upon the trees. It is also a good fungicide. If 

 applied in early winter it is nearly or quite equal to bordeaux 

 for the second application for apple tree anthracnose ; applied 

 to peach trees just before the buds open in the spring it is a 

 preventive of peach leaf-curl ; and applied to apple trees under 

 similar conditions it is a satisfactory substitute for the appli- ' 

 cation of bordeaux which is usually recommended for that 

 time. 



With all its good qualities, however, the lime, sulphur, salt 

 spray is not a cure-all. It does not, so far as known, reduce 

 the number of wormy apples in an orchard, nor can it be 

 used as a substitute for bordeaux while the trees are in foli- 

 age. It is a distinctly winter spray and should be used even 

 in winter only upon deciduous trees. 



The San Jose scale is very largely responsible for the pres- 

 ent enthusiastic crusade against the old, neglected, moss- 

 covered orchards. Everyone is pruning and spraying. Why? 

 To destroy the San Jose scale. Yet I find that a very small 

 percentage of our farmers know what this dread thing is 

 which they are so earnestly endeavoring to destroy. If any 

 other spray than the lime, sulphur and salt were being used, 

 a • reaction against all spraying would certainly follow the 

 poor results of so much misdirected energy. By using the 

 lime, sulphur, salt spray, beneficial results are almost certain 

 to follow, whether the scale be present or not. Nevertheless, 

 everyone who grows trees or shrubs should learn to know this 

 destructive little pest and be prepared to combat it, since it 



