SPRAYING FOR CONTROL OF PEACH BROWN-ROT AND SCAB. 23 



against brown-rot from the use of self-boiled lime-sulphur during 

 1908, but complained of marring the appearance of the fruit by 

 heavy deposits of lime. The formula that he used (15 pounds of 

 lime and 10 pounds of sulphur to 50 gallons of water) was stronger 

 than necessary, and the spraying was perhaps continued too near the 

 ripening period. In our 1907 experiments this heavy mixture was 

 used and at picking time the fruit was somewhat stained, but the 

 amount of lime used has since been reduced from 15 to 8 pounds 

 in 50 gallons and the staining now is not a serious matter. The 

 Chicago buyers who purchased the sprayed fruit of the orchard 

 at Neoga, 111., in which our 1908 experiments were conducted, made 

 no complaint of staining, but on the contrary declined to purchase 

 any of the unsprayed fruit on account of bad scab infections. The 

 sprayed fruit of the Georgia experiments showed evidence of the 

 mixture at picking time, but the whitish specks were largely rubbed 

 off in picking, sorting, and packing. It was more highly colored, 

 slightly larger, and presented a much better appearance than the 

 unsprayed fruit. However, in order to avoid whitewashing the 

 fruit, the last application should be made not later than about 

 four weeks before the ripening period and care should be taken to 

 give the peaches a uniformly light coating of line spray. 



RESULTS OBTAINED BY GROWERS IN COMMERCIAL ORCHARDS. 



A considerable number of peach growers have already taken up 

 the self-boiled lime-sulphur treatment for the control of scab and 

 brown-rot, and the writers have been able to obtain reports from some 

 of these. Stranahan Brothers, of Bullochville, Ga., were among 

 the first to give it a trial on a commercial scale. In 1908 they 

 sprayed their orchard of 35,000 trees twice with self-boiled lime- 

 sulphur and arsenate of lead. In a letter dated January 13, 1909, 

 they report that, aside from about 50 trees, the leaves of which were 

 .slightly burned, "not a leaf or peach was injured and we had no 

 brown-rot and only one-half of 1 per cent of wormy peaches, including 

 culls and drops. In fact, we had no drops, May, June, or otherwise, 

 and had to thin the fruit three times. " They sprayed the orchard 

 again in 1909, using about the same treatment, and the junior writer 

 made observations on the results at two different times during the 

 season. It was found that considerable injury to foliage had occurred 

 at several places in the orchard, due perhaps to too much cooking of 

 certain lots, but in no case did this injury appear to be serious, cer- 

 tainly not sufficient to discourage spraying. Peach scab and brown- 

 rot were almost completely controlled, as was the case the previous 

 year. 



Miller Brothers, of Okonoko, W. Va., were as quick to take up the 

 treatment, and their work was directed more especially to the control 



174 



