154 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



twenty-two. Rain fell on six days, and a light snow on one other. The 

 first rain, on March 7, lasted for two and a half hours but was very light 

 — about two gallons for each experimental tree, according to Mr. Titus's 

 estimate. The temperature at the time was fifty-six degrees. On the 

 ninth day after the beginning of the first experiment (March 11) the 

 weather was showery, with heavy mist most of the day, the temperature 

 sixty degrees to sixty-four degrees; and on the thirteenth day (March 

 15) a heavy shower of rain fell, with hail, for an hour in the afternoon, 

 amounting to ten or twelve gallons to the tree. The seventeenth and 

 eighteenth were cold — twenty-six degrees in the morning and twenty-four 

 degrees at noon on the seventeenth, and eighteen degrees in the morning 

 and twenty-four degrees at noon on the eighteenth. The wind blew strong 

 and cold from the northwest, with a light snow on the first of these 

 days. A slow drizzling rain fell on the twentieth, beginning at about five in 

 the afternoon and continuing through the night and all the following day. 

 The insecticide sprays were applied on the third, the fifth, and the twen- 

 tieth. March 3 was a partly cloudy day, with a cold raw wind from the east 

 and northeast, the thermometer registering thirty degrees at seven a. m. and 

 forty degrees at noon. The fifth was a clear day, with a northwest wind, 

 fairly strong, the thermometer thirty degrees at seven a. m. and forty- 

 five degrees at noon. On the twentieth the wind was from the southeast, with 

 a threat of storm which resulted in rain at five o'clock in the afternoon. 

 The temperature was thirty-four degrees at seven a. m. and fifty-seven 

 degrees at noon. 



PREPARATION OF THE INSECTICIDES. 



The insecticide washes were prepared in substantially the same man- 

 ner. For the California wash, fifteen pounds of stone lime were slaked 

 in a little very hot water, fifteen pounds of ground sulphur being slowly 

 poured in during the slaking process with constant stirring of the mixture. 

 This was then boiled for an hour, after which fifteen pounds of salt were 

 added and the boiling continued for fifteen minutes longer. The whole 

 was then poured into a barrel through a strainer, and enough boiling 

 water was added to make fifty gallons. In the preparation of the Oregon 

 wash a pound and a quarter of blue vitriol was used instead of the salt, 

 the crystals of the blue vitriol being dissolved in hot water and the solu- 

 tion added slowly to the slaking lime. The apparatus used was a Mor- 

 rill and Morley pump, with twenty-five feet of hose and a twelve-foot 

 extension rod with a double Vermorel nozzle. 



THE WATER SPRAYS TO TEST EFFECT OF RAINS. 



In wetting down the trees to imitate the effects of rain, fifteen gallons 

 of water were used to a tree, as a rule, a double amount being occasionally 

 applied as a variation of the experiment. For a tree of the average spread 

 of thirteen feet, fifteen gallons oi water was equivalent to a rainfall of 

 a sixth of an inch, amounting to a sharp summer shower. The washing 

 and leaching effect of the application wt.s, however, greater than that 



