112 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



pounds packages, while the druggists charge fifteen. He had used pumps 

 with cog gear, but now uses, and much prefers, sprocket wheels and end- 

 less chain. The cogs often slipped when the wagon passed over uneven 

 ground. Answering a question, Prof. Taft said he would use chemical 

 fertilizers, such as ashes or potash salts or phosphates and bone; or, on 

 poor soils, sodium nitrate. These will give trees less liable to disease^ 

 but the sodium nitrate should be us6d on poor soils only. By use of these 

 fertilizers on good, well drained soils, we can certainly raise good fruit. 



Mr. J. N. Stearns of Kalamazoo: I have been spraying fruits the past 

 ten years or more, and wish to emphasize some points in the work. 

 Early spraying is of the utmost importance. It should be done, with fun- 

 gicides, before any green can be seen in the buds, and the spraying 

 continued until the blue color can be seen on the bark. I have found 

 spraying to prevent defoliation of the plum. There is trouble in dis- 

 solving the copper. I have learned to place in a coarse sack and suspend 

 it in a barrel of ivarm water. It is very important that the lime should be 

 fresh. I use four pounds of copper sulphate to five (better six) pounds of 

 lime, in forty gallons of water. I like the Nixon nozzle, and have no 

 trouble with it if the Bordeaux mixture is strained through a coffee sack or 

 some such coarse fabric. I do not spray during the time of full blossom- 

 ing. I believe that use of the Bordeaux mixture prevents rot of the plum, 

 at least it apparently had that effect with me last season. I use Paris 

 green in the last three sprayings. Prof. Davis came to my place last year 

 and experimented three weeks with spraying and jarring; and he caught 

 only two curculio in the portion of the orchard that was sprayed. The 

 trouble is, I think, with those who fail, they do not begin early enough. 



Said Prof. E. G. Lodeman of Cornell university experiment station: At 

 Cornell we have sprayed King and Baldwin apple trees with a combina- 

 tion of Bordeaux mixture and Paris green and London purple, and with 

 Paris green only. The Bordeaux mixture was four pounds of copper to 

 six of lime in forty gallons of water. Part of the lime used was air-slaked^ 

 which is in strength, 'compared with unslaked, as 10 is to 13. We began 

 rather late, four or five days after blossoming, and were too late. It should 

 have been done before the blossoming; and yet we reduced the scab from 

 25 to 40 per cent, with Bordeaux mixture and the arsenites, and 15 to 20 

 per cent, with the Paris green alone. The lime neutralizes the soluble 

 arsenic and makes the combination the safer. 



Mr. S. D. Willard: I have found London purple e([ually good with 

 Paris green when in combination with Bordeaux mixture, because the lime 

 neutralizes the arsenic in either, so that the foliage is not burned. I have 

 a half dozen sheets of burlap, through which to strain the Bordeaux mix- 



