Slimmer Meeting, 131 



TREATMENT. 



Fortunately, this dreaded disease can be absolutely controlled 

 ^y spraying with Bordeaux mixture. This point was proved con- 

 clusively by experiments conducted in Virginia last year by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. The object of these 

 experiments was to determine (1) to what extent bitter rot could 

 be controlled by spraying with Bordeaux mixture; (2) the number 

 of applications required, and (3) the proper time to make these 

 applications. 



These experiments were conducted in the orchard of Mr. W. 

 H. Goodwin, at Avan, Va., and the results were published in Bul- 

 letin 93, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of 

 Agriculture. 



The trees were 25-year-old Yellow Newtons or Albemarle Pip- 

 pins, capable of bearing about 25 bushels each. We sprayed fif- 

 teen plots of two trees each and left a number of trees unsprayed. 

 The whole story is told in the accompanying table — the dates each 

 plot was sprayed, the number of bushels of sound fruit, the num- 

 )jer of bushels of rotten fruit and the percentage of sound fruiL 

 The three early dates, April 8th, May 1st and May 9th, were for 

 scab and codling moth. These dates came just before the trees 

 bloomed, as soon as the blossoms fell, and eight days later. The 

 bitter rot treatment did not begin until June 12th, about six weeks 

 after the petals fell ; the other dates are at intervals of two weeks 

 thereafter. 



Plot 1 had only the three scab treatments, which did some 

 good, but yielded only 37.9 per cent of sound fruit, 3014. bushels 

 having rotted on the two trees. 



Plot 2 had the scab applications and two bitter rot treatments 

 — June 12th and 27th — which gave 67.8 per cent of sound fruit, 

 but not enough yet. 



Plot 3 had the scab treatments and four bitter rot treatments 

 at intervals of two weeks, beginning June 12th, and yielded 56 

 bushels of sound fruit and only two bushels of rotten fruit, or 

 961/2 per cent of sound fruit — almost complete success. 



Plots 4, 5 and 6 were sprayed the same as plot 3, with one, two 

 and three additional applications, respectively, and the percent- 

 a.q-e of sound fruit is a little higher, as seen in the table, but the dif- 

 ference is hardly sufficient to pay for the extra spraying. 



Plot 6 received seven bitter rot applications in addition to the 

 scab treatment, and produced 68 1/2 bushels of sound fruit and less 



