266 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sion as the nymphs are killed almost instantly. There is not the least 

 danger of injury to the trees from the diluted emulsion. All dwarfs and 

 young trees of all kinds may be sprayed with a knapsack sprayer. 



The best time to spray is early in the spring just after the leaves have 

 expanded. In 1892, about May 15, was the best time. Then the first 

 brood of nymphs had all emerged and were exposed in the axils. It was 

 this first brood which did the most damage in 1891. Therefore it is very 

 important that the insect should be checked early in the season. Fruit- 

 growers should examine their orchards when the leaves are expanding in 

 the spring, and if the nymphs are numerous no time should be lost in 

 spraying the trees with the emulsion. A second or even a third spraying 

 could be profitably applied if the attack were serious, and especially if but 

 little rain had fallen to wash off the honey-dew. The destruction of the 

 nymphs is practicable during a period of two weeks about May 15. If the 

 spraying is thoroughly done at this time, the pest will be so completely 

 checked as to necessitate but little, if any, further attention durihg the 

 season. Most of the damage is usually done before June 15, but spraying 

 after this date will decrease the number from which the hibernating forms 

 are produced ; and thus the orchard may be saved from a severe attack the 

 following year. 



The summer adults were not numerous enough this year to thoroughly 

 test the effect of spraying upon them. It seems from the experiments 

 made last year by fruitgrowers that it is hardly practicable to try to kill 

 the adults by spraying. A few may be destroyed by coming in contact 

 with the emulsion when they return to the tree. 



MARK VERNON SLIKGERLAND. 



TOMATO NOTES FOE 1892. 



I. Quick and slow fertilizers. — The influence of heavy manaring upon 

 tomatoes has engaged our attention for a number of years. It is a common 

 belief that the tomato, unlike most plants, is not benefited by rich soil or 

 heavy fertilizing. " The plants run to vine," the gardeners say. There 

 must be some truth in this belief, else it could not have become so wide- 

 spread and be held so tenaciously. Productiveness in the tomato in the 

 northern states is largely, if not chiefly, a question of early bearing; the 

 plant will outlive any northern season, and its life is therefore determined 

 by contingencies of frost rather than Ijy any inherent limit of duration. 

 The plant never matures here, and it would probably continue to bear for 

 some months if not destroyed. We have carried plants in bearing condi- 



