HISTORY OF TREATMENT. 51 



cuustic s])ray reconiiiKMiclcd Ity Mr. Block coiisistod of 1 pound of {>8 

 por cont caustic soda to (> oi* 7 nallons of water. The same year, LS8(>, 

 Mr. Sol. Ruin'ou, of Coui'tlaud. Cal., reported that he had met with 

 success incontrollinii- a ••l)li<iht" of peach trees, the name of the dis- 

 ease not being- known to him. This l^licrht had previously caused all 

 the leaves to fall from every tive he had. especially thi^ youno- ones. 

 He used a caustic spray on the dormant tree, as did ^Ir. iilock, and 

 states that the trees which he treated were not afiected by the blioht 

 at all, while the untreated trees, right beside th«^ treated ones, were 

 badly affected.' There is little doubt that ^Nlr. Hunyon was treating 

 curl, as it is a very serious trou))l(> in that section of the State. After 

 the leaves had fallen in the autunm of 1886 and during the winter of 

 1886-87, Mr. Kunyon sprayed many of his peach trees with a spra}' 

 composed of 2 gallons iish oil, 10 pounds of caustic soda (98 pei' cent), 

 and 5 pounds of copper sulphate to 100 gallons of water. This spray, 

 as applied, was certainly a pi"ev(Mitiv(» of curl, and as a portion of his 

 peach trees were left imtreated the contrast should have been marked. 

 Unfortunately, however, I have ])een unable to get further details of 

 this early work with copper sidphate, as Mr. Runyon is no longer 

 living.^ 



In November, 1888, Mr. W. (t. Klee stated at the Chico meeting of 

 the California State Board of Horticulture, that an experienced and suc- 

 cessfid fruit grower in San Jose had used successfully for the purpose 

 of killing scale insects, the so-called sal soda and whale oil wash, and 

 that h(^ maintained that ever since he had been using that wash ho had 

 been free from leaf curl in his orchard.'' Mr. floseph Hale, of Stock- 

 ton, Cal. , reports * that he sprayed his peach trees, while dormant, in the 

 years 1888, 1889, and 1890, as well as in subsequent years, and that as 

 a result he sustained no loss from curl during these years. He used 

 the lime, sulphur, and salt spra}'. Mr. G. W. Ramsey, of Lotus, 

 Cal., states that he began spraying his orchard wnth . lime, sulphur, 

 and salt in 1890 or possibly in 1891. In 1895, in Avriting of his past 

 spray work, he states that his trees had not been affected in the least 

 by leaf curl since he had been using the above wash. He says: "It 

 completely exterminated the scale the lirst two years I used it, but I 

 continue to apply it to my trees once a 3^ear to prevent leaf curl," He 

 further states that this wash must be applied when the buds are dor- 

 mant, and that it is generally applied in February in his section. 



oil soap (South Australian Journal of Agriculture, March, 1899, Vol.11, No. 8, p. 630) ; 

 see also the results reported by Henry Rofkar and W. V. Latham & Son, of Catawba 

 Island, Ohio, as reported by A. D. Selby, Bull. No. 104, pp. 208, 209, Ohio Agr. Exp. 

 Sta., March, 1899. 



iRept. Cal. State Bd. Hort., 1885-86, p. 221, 



-Ibid., 1887-88, p. 93. 



''Rept. Cal. State Bd. Hort., 1889, p. 172. 



♦ Reply to circular letter of Nov. 25, 1893, 



