HISTORY OF TREATMENT. 55 



advised tho uso of B<)i'd«'iuix inixturo; but Jis this fundus is iiotivc in 

 the spiiiiji- before thi^ trees leaf out, Mr. Woolsey sprayed the trees while 

 dormant. He says, in rehition to his results, that he found Bordeaux 

 mixture corrected the trouble with the twigs, and at the same time acted 

 as a specific for the leaf curl. ' His work for the control of curl in the 

 following- year was strikingly conclusive as to the effectiveness of this 

 spray. Mr. 1). W. Sylvester, of Geyserville, Cal., conducted some 

 spraying experiments in 1892 with the direct object of controlling curl. 

 His spray was composed of 12 pounds of copper sulphate and 20 pounds 

 of lime to 100 gallons of water, and was applied to the dormant trees. 

 Mr. Sylvester states that having formed the opinion that the disease 

 was of fungous nature, and knowing of the value of copper sulphate as 

 a fungicide, he determined to test it against curl. He belie\t'd better 

 results would be obtained hy killing the ''germ" than by waiting until 

 the disease appeared, and this, he says, induced him to make the appli- 

 cation to the dormant trees. For the experiment he selected a row of 

 10 trees, spraying 5 and leaving 5 unsprayed for comparison. He 

 states that the 5 sprayed trees held their leaves and fruit and bore a 

 crop, but the others shed every leaf and every peach, and for more 

 than a month looked as if a fire had gone over them. In spite of this 

 experience, Mr. Sylvester neglected to spray in 1893, when, he states, 

 the trees shed all their leaves and nearly all their fruit through curl, "^ 

 and adds that the l)est time to spray is just as the })uds begin to swell. 

 A portion of the peach trees on the Rio Bonito ranch at Biggs, Cal., 

 were sprayed with the lime, sulphur, and salt spray in 1892, the spray 

 being applied to the dormant trees as elsewhere. The contrast tTiat 

 season between the sprayed and unsprayed trees was well marked, the 

 unsprayed trees being much affected by curl, while those treated were 

 practically free from it. These observations were made at the time 

 by Mr. McDonald, the foreman, and by others on the ranch. 



The preceding examples could be greatly extended if necessary, as 

 winter spraying was a common practice in California after 1885. By 

 1892 the San Jose scale had also become more widely distributed . in 

 Oregon, and was being quite generally treated by winter sprays in that 

 State. Mr. A. H. Carson, of Grants Pass, Oreg. , began spraying his 

 orchard about this time. In reply to a communication sent to him 

 November 25, 1893, Mr. Carson says that his knowledge as to the lime, 

 sulphur, and salt remedy for leaf curl was gained by observing that 

 trees on which this remed}^ was used to destroy the San Jose scale were 

 not affected by curl, although they were varieties much subject to the 

 disease. On the other hand, he states that unsprayed trees, with the 

 same conditions as to exposure, altitude, etc., were badly affected. 

 Mr. J. H. Stewart, of Medford, Oreg., writes that he sprayed his peach 



1 Letter dated lone, Cal., Aug. 26, 1899. 



^Letters dated Geyserville, Ca!., Nov., 1893, and Sept. 18, 1899. 



