no STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



five pounds of arsenic with ten pounds of freshly slacked lime in ten 

 gallons of water for forty minutes to obtain the equivalent of ten pounds 

 of Paris green. The arsenite of lime thus formed is in the form of a 

 rather coarse, granular precipitate, Avhicli should be pulverized or rubbed 

 through a fine seive before it is added to the spraying mixture. If used 

 with Bordeaux mixture, it will be well to add a slight excess of lime, 

 and two or three pounds of lime should be added to fifty gallons, if to be 

 used in water. Five |)Ounds of arsenic prepared as above will be sufii- 

 cient for 500 to 1,000 gallons, according to the number, kind and age 

 of the insects to be treated. 



Althougli about twice as expensive, and exactly the same in the end, 

 some fruit growers prefer to dissolve the arsenic in an alkali. This 

 can be readily done by boiling five pounds of arsenic and ten pounds of 

 washing soda in five gallons of water. The clear solution thus formed 

 should be added either to Bordeaux mixture or lime water as directel 

 above, using one quart to 50 or 100 gallons. 



The best insecticide for this class of insecticide is arsenate of lead. 

 This is manufactured by several firms and sold under various proprie- 

 tary names, of which ''Disparene" is best known. It contains only twelve 

 to sixteen per cent of arsenious oxide, and hence to equal Paris green 

 three or four times as much should be used. At the present prices it 

 costs but little more, and it has the merit of being safe to use upon all 

 plants, while its adhesive properties are much greater than those of 

 either Paris green or arsenite of lime. The l)est results against moist 

 insects are obtained when used at the rate of two to three pounds in 

 fifty gallons of waters, but for June bug and rose chafer, as mucli as 

 five pounds in fiftv gallons will be necessarv. 



OKCHARD TILLAGE. 



Altliough the larger commercial orchards have more attention, the 

 apj)le orchard on the average Michigan farm is allowed to grow in sod 

 witli little or no care. During the year arrangements have been made 

 with lanners in various ])arts of liie state to test dillerent metiiods of 

 handling their orchards. One section is left in sod Avithout further at- 

 tention, another is cultivated ea;rly in tlie season and sowed to oats, 

 or some other cover crop, and olh<'r ](ortions are miih-Iied witli sIraAA', 

 or oilier i-efnse, so as to ]>revent tli<' growth of gi-ass over a circle con 

 siderably Jargei- llian the sjyread of the branclu^s. The mulched sections, 

 especially when a liberal amount of mannre foi-ms a part of tlie mulch 

 compare favora])ly with those that are cultivate<l, and in many ]»arls 

 of llie state sti-aw is so readily obtained that it is cheapei- than to cul- 

 tivate. 



FRRTII.IZKU lOXrEUIMRXTS. 



Although stable manure. supi)lemented by wood aslu^s, ^^•ould answer 

 every purpose as an orchard fertilizer, it is not readily obtained, especi- 

 ally in the sections of the state wlu'i-e fruit growing is the leading in- 

 dustry, and orchardists ai-e finding that something else must be obtained. 

 Our experiments in this line are with apples, peaches and grapes of the 

 fruits and also with the potato. Various mixtures of acid phosphate, 



