140 PEACH LEAF CURL'. ITS NATURE AND TREATMENT. 



unsprayed trees 90 per cent was lost, leaving the trees nearly bare. 

 Unfortunately, frost killed the buds, and no comparison of fruit was 

 possible, but it is safe to say that the fall of 90 per cent of the leaves 

 would have caused the loss of the crop, while 10 per cent loss would 

 have occasioned little, if any, falling of fruit. Mr. Meissner writes 

 respecting his work that the- copper sulphate spray "has given far 

 better results than the sulphur, lime, and salt," and that "the trees 

 sprayed with the bluestone mixture look the best of any in the 

 orchard." 



Mr. Bennett used the 5-pound formula for the Bordeaux mixture 

 as given for Mr. Meissner. He sprayed but once, on March 11, 1895. 

 The 29 trees sprayed averaged 44 pounds of fruit per tree, while the 

 single control tree yielded but 9 pounds, or a net gain in fruit of 388 

 per cent. The fact of most interest in connection with this work is, 

 however, that the variety treated was the Elberta, which is probably 

 more universally susceptible to leaf curl than any other variety now 

 grown in the United States. The control of curl on this variety was 

 almost absolute, as will be seen from the following letter from Mr. 

 Bennett: 



I send you to-day a report of the spraying for leaf curl. The experiment was an 

 honest trial, and I feel very jubilant over the success. I have reported only the 

 Elberta variety, as it was one of that kind which I left unsprayed. I am more than 

 pleased with the results, and can say that a good trial is all that any man needs who 

 has the welfare of his orchard at heart (his pocketbook as well) . The peaches from • 

 the sprayed trees were first-class, clean, and sold at the highest market price. I 

 notice a very marked difference in the general health of the trees in favor of those 

 sprayed. The leaves lost by the sprayed trees were, perhaps, one-half of 1 per cent. 

 The unsprayed tree was a little above an average tree in the spring. There were 29 

 sprayed trees, which yielded an average of 44 pounds of choice fruit to the tree, 

 nearly half of which packed 56 peaches to the box. I sprayed 75 Wheatland trees 

 with the same success as far as leaf curl is concerned. They are fine, healthy trees 

 now, and bore a good crop this season. They have been bad about curling, but I 

 left an Elberta because that variety is the worst to curl, and if spraying did them no 

 good I intended to grub them out. 



Mr. P. W. Olwell, of Centralpoint, Oreg., applied the sulphur 

 spray to 400 Muir trees in his orchard, leaving 25 trees unsprayed for 

 comparison . The f ornmla used by Mr. Olwell was 15 pounds of sulphur, 

 30 pounds of lime, and 10 pounds of salt to 60 gallons of water. His 

 trees were 5 years old, growing in black, loamy soil. They were 

 sprayed March 10. The sprayed trees did not lose any foliage from 

 disease, while the control trees lost 25 per cent. The fruit records 

 were not reported. 



NOTES ON THE AUXILIARY EXPERIMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. 



Besides the experimental work conducted by the writer in the Sac- 

 ramento Valley in the years. 1894 and 1895, a considerable number of 

 growers assisted in carrying on experiments in different portions of 



