EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 405 



CAUTIONS. 



The copper solutions should be made in wood, glass or earthen vessels, and 

 should not be prepared in iron or tin. 



Care should be taken against spraying plants of any kind with lime or poisonous 

 mixtures within four or five weeks of the time they are to be used as food. 



Study carefully the nature of the insect or disease and select the remedy that 

 Is most likely to destroy it without injuring the plants. 



Do not spray while the trees are in blossom, as the bees will be destroyed; they 

 are necessary to fertilize the flowers. 



Pumps for the application of insecticides and fungicides should be sufficiently 

 powerful to cover the trees or plants with a fine mist, and where copper com- 

 pounds are to be used, the working parts should be of brass, and if all portions 

 that are to come in contact with the spraying mixture are of brass, the durability 

 of the pump will be greatly increased, except when the sulphur, lime and salt 

 wash is used. For this an iron pump is better. It should have metal valves 

 and should be rinsed out each day when through spraying. 



REPORT OF THE SOUTH HAVEN SUB-STATION FOR 1903. 



BY T. A. FAEKAND. 



[Special Bulletin No. 27.] 



Prof. L. R. Taft, Horticulturist: 



Sir — The following report upon the work of the South Haven substation for 

 the year 1903 is herewith submitted. 



The past season was a very favorable one for nearly all classes of fruit. 

 European plums bore very heavily, and cherries, apples and pears gave a good 

 average yield, with a light crop of peaches, quinces and Japan plums. Of the 

 bush fruits, gooseberries, blackberries and newer settings of raspberries made 

 the best showing. Currants gave a fair yield, while the grapes gave only a light 

 crop. 



In nearly all instances, the spraying was attended with excellent results and 

 the fruit was usually free from fungous diseases and the work of destructive 

 insects. 



In the line of new experimentation — A "Cyclone" dust sprayer was purchased 

 last April of the Dust Sprayer Mfg. Co., Kansas City, Mo., the object being to 

 determine the value of lime, as a conveyor of arsenites and fungicides in con- 

 trolling destructive insects and diseases, as compared with the usual liquid sprays. 

 For this method a great saving in cost of material and in labor, with equally 

 as good, or better, results is claimed. It was thoroughly tested on apples and 

 pears for scab and the codling moth, and upon plums for curculio and brown 

 rot. It was also tried upon other classes of fruit for various insect pests and 

 diseases. The results will be given with the general notes upon the different 

 classes of fruits. 



One mixture, (No. 1.) included lye, sulphur, copper sulphate and paris green. 

 In preparing it a barrel of fresh lime, two and one-half pounds of common, or 

 crude potash, twenty-four pounds of sulphur, ten pounds of copper sulphate and 

 four pounds of paris green was used. 



To prepare this material ready for the machine, one-half of the lime was spread 

 upon the floor and the large lumps broken into pieces thfe size of a hen's egg, 

 and the pile spread out to a thickness of three or four inches. This was then 

 slaked by sprinkling it with five gallons of water in which two and one-half 

 pounds of potash had been dissolved. The other half barrel of lime was spread 

 out and pounded up in like manner and this was dry-slaked with five gallons 

 of water, in which ten pounds of copper sulphate had been dissolved. After 

 being allowed to cool, the two piles were thoroughly mixed, after which twenty- 



