98 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



claimed that it injured their horses' harnesses, and everything else. We 

 never have had any such results, and have applied a good deal of it for 

 several years. It may have, possibly, something of a caustic effect on 

 harnesses. Early in the season when it is cool, we usually have a burlap 

 cover over our harnesses when we are using the lime and sulphur. Later, 

 when using the Bordeaux, we think it is too heating for the horses, and 

 we don't even use that, and we have not found any very serious damage 

 to our harness. Men sometimes say it irritates their faces somewhat, but 

 we have not had any trouble. 



We shall be very glad indeed if the oil mixtures prove satisfactory, because 

 we realize that when you apply the lime and sulphur you are obliged to strike 

 every particle of tree; the lime and sulphur will kill every scale it touches,, 

 and no more; whereas the oil, if you don't hit every spot, has a tendency 

 to spread, and a little less careful application will secure the best results. 



We haven't any hopes of exterminating the scale. We only hope to keep 

 it in check, even with the oil; but we may perhaps get a little nearer to it 

 with the oil than sulphur. 



I think the San Jose scale today is a greater menace to the small grower 

 and the farmer in the farm orchard, or the villager or cottager, than to the 

 commercial grower. Brother Hale calls it "that blessed little San Jose 

 scale," and I believe it is putting hundreds of dollars in the pocket of every 

 commercial grower in the United States, because it is putting the market 

 in the hands of specialists. But the great damage that the San Jose scale 

 has done, is doing, and threatens to do, is in the cities and villages. We 

 cannot afford to have horticulture and horticultural products driven out 

 of the homes of the cottagers and the farmers. We know that horticulture 

 and horticultural products add immensely to the productiveness, whole- 

 someness and value of every farm home, of every village home in Michigan,. 

 Ohio, and all over our land, and it is there that the scale is going to do the 

 greatest damage. It does not damage the commercial grower. As a matter 

 of dollars and cents, dollars and cents — simply selfish interest, I would not 

 today, were it in my power, ask that the San Jose scale be swept from ex- 

 istence. I believe that my business is more profitable, and will continue 

 to be more profitable with the scale than without it. But out of sympathy 

 for other smaller growers I would be only too glad to have it extinct; but that 

 perhaps will never occur. Some of us possibly are building up false hopes: 

 this season; we think that the scale is not so active, not so pernicious, and 

 some hope it will gradually disappear. I hope so, but I haven't the least 

 belief that it will. I think it is simply a question of climatic conditions; 

 and I think another season, the weather being different, will find the scale, 

 just as active as ever. We don't want to be misled by any false hopes. 



There is one preparation of the lime and sulphur that has been put upon 

 the market considerably, and I had hopes it would be satisfactory. We find 

 some objections to it of course. I refer to the Rex lime and sulphur solution,, 

 which is simply lime and sulphur manufactured in a large way. They make 

 claims for it, and as far as our experience has gone, it has proved satisfactory. 

 A great deal of it was used in northern Ohio in some sections last spring. 

 That brings up one objection that we hope the makers of the oil preparation 

 will overcome; I hope they will be able to combine fungicidal properties 

 with their oil. 



Now if we spray with the lime and sulphur, and especially late in the 

 season, my aim has been on the apple and the pear to spray just as late in 

 the season as I could safely, and get it done before the blossom opened; 



