180 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



anything about thinning the fruit. He said I spoiled several orchards 

 by telling them what to spray with, and neglected the caution about 

 thinning. It certainly does affect them, and you can control curculio 

 to quite an extent by spraying. 



Prof. Taft: I think I can sympathize with Mr. Wilde in that respect. 

 There was a gentleman in Oakland county who had been looking up the 

 matter of spraying, and has for several years obtained good prices, from 

 the fact that his neighbors had not ''caught on" and didn't spray. He 

 savs thev have now learned about it from the college bulletins and the 

 market is flooded, and he can not get anything for his plums. There is 

 a. necessity of using lime with arsenic, for a double reason. In the first 

 place, arsenic is insoluble in water; water will only dissolve a small 

 amount of arsenic for an orchard of any size, even using boiling water; 

 the lime has a peculiar action from the fact that water is able to dissolve 

 only a small amount of arsenic; the lime unites with this and forms the 

 arsenite of lime; this drops to the bottom of the kettle and the water is 

 again clear. A small amount of arsenic is dissolved and again taken up 

 by the lime, and so it goes on. Without the lime, it would not be possible 

 to dissolve a one hundredth as much in a given amount of water. If we 

 should attempt to use arsenic without lime, the chances are we would 

 burn the foliage, for the arsenic acts as a strong acid, and would do 

 harm at the ordinary strength; but, being insoluble, it falls on the leaves 

 and remains there. The insect feeding on this will be poisoned nearly as 

 soon as in eating clear arsenic. It is perfectly safe to use it in this way 

 provided we keep it away from stock and human beings, and I would 

 prefer it, if it is properly used, both on account of its being more likely 

 to be pure, as well as being cheaper. 



Is it possible to thin grapes at this time, early in June f 



Mr. Van Brunt: I never do it, nor trim in the summer time. I gen- 

 erally do the thinning in the spring when I trim them. 



Mr. Morrill: I suppose, Mr. Stevens, you have reference to a crop, 

 which from lack of being trimmed down is too heavy at this time. 



Mr. Stevens: There is one twig with five bunches on. 



Mr. Merry: I never had any experience in that direction. I do not do 

 any thinning at this time of year. I intend to do it in spring, but I 

 should think thinning would be a very good practice if the vines were 

 overloaded. 



Prof. Wheeler: In growing grapes in the college grapehouse, for profit, 

 the clusters are cut off but one, and each one of these clusters is thinned 

 out. There is enough left then. 



Is there any new blackberry which promises better than the old sorts ? 



Prof. Slayton: Is there any old sort which promises well? 



Mr. Morrill: New sorts, in the catalogues, generally promise every- 

 thing. 



Mr. Stephen Cook: I have tried some of the new varieties, and I threw 

 them away. I can not find anything better than the old ones, but perhaps 

 there is. I am trying Eldorado, Minnewaski, and several others, and 

 whether thev will amount to anything is a question. There is one old 



