158 State Horticultural Society. 



time required for shifting the dust through the very fine sieves and the 

 great amount of irritating dust which fills the air and nose of the makers 

 rendered its preparation not only difficult but expensive. An easier and 

 cheaper way might be briefly described, as follows: Take four pounds 

 of blue stone and dissolve in four gallons of water in a wooden tub ; 

 in another tub slack four pounds of quick lime and as soon as slacked to 

 u\t finest powder possible add four gallons of water and allow to stand 

 till cool. These two lots are then poured at the same time, into a third 

 vessel and stirred till no greenish streaks are visible in the blue mass. 

 Two hundreds pounds of air-slacked lime are then poured out in a heap 

 on a clean dry floor, and an opening- made in the top of the pile suffi- 

 ciently large to hold the eight gallons of blue material. The blue material 

 is then poured slowly into the pile of air-slacked lime and quickly mixed 

 with it. We have found that a garden rake or hoe is the best tool to 

 use in mixing these materials, and the work can all be done in about 

 half an hour. As soon as the hquid mass has all been added to the lime 

 and the whole well worked together it should be immediately run through 

 a sand sieve and spread out on the floor as thinly as possible to dry. 

 This will take two or three days or perhaps more if the Aveather is wet, 

 but as soon as thoroughly dried sift again, using a fine sieve, one slightly 

 finer than window screen wire. In doing this, one will enjoy less in- 

 convenience from the irritating dust if he can stand where a gentle draft 

 v^ill carry the dust away from his face, and less dust will fly if the sifting 

 is done as close to the floor as it is possible to work. The use of a much 

 finer sieve, one having sixty or eighty wires to the inch is highly recom- 

 mended, since it will give a much finer and more thoroughly mixed 

 powder, and less waste, but the great amount of time required to sift 

 through the fine sieve probably will not pay for its use. 



Now as to the value of the various spray mixtures ; during the past 

 season the dust mixture as prepared according to the formula of Dr. 

 Bird, was used by the Station in two commercial orchards, together with 

 the dust made up according to Mr. Maxwell's formula, and the standard 

 liquid Bordeaux mixture. In one of these orchards the entire crop of 

 apples was lost, owing to the fruit having all been entirely killed by scab, 

 in spite of the sprayings which were given. In the other a fair crop was 

 had with the following results : The plat sprayed with liquid Bordeaux 

 mixture gave 50 per cent of the crop as No. i apples ; the plat sprayed 

 with Dr. Bird's mixture gave 29 per cent of No. I's, and the plat sprayed 

 with Mr. Maxwell's gave 30 per cent of No. I's. It is our intention to 

 carry on this experiment for series of years, spraying the same trees with 

 the same materials each year and perhaps after eight or ten years some 



