234 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The average number of apple trees per acre is not less than sixty. 

 Trees that are from 15 to 25 years of age will require at least from ten 

 to twenty gallons of spray per tree if thorough spraying is done. For one 

 acre of trees, putting the average at fifteen gallons per tree, it would 

 take nine hundred gallons of spray, or four and one-half tanks of the 

 ordinary (200 gallon) size. 



Unless water is very handy and other conveniences proportionately 

 so, it is seldom that more than nine tanks can be applied in a day with 

 two leads of hose, and medium coarse nozzles. In other words, only two 

 acres of such orchard can be well sprayed in one day witli one power 

 sprayer. Allowing the maximum time of ten days for the calyces to re- 

 main open, only twenty acres of orchard can be treated with one ma- 

 chine. Yet I know dozens of machines that are expected to spray two 

 and three times as much in a season, and owners of orchards so sprayed 

 condemn the arsenate of lead used, the methods of spraying advocated by 

 those "scientific men," and possibly everything else, except the real rea- 

 son for failure, a desire to make one machine do more than it can possibly 

 accomplish. 



Besides the provision for maintenance of a high pressure, there are 

 other things that the power sprayer should possess in order that the 

 highest degree of efficiency in spraying may result. 



The agitation of the liquid in the tank is an important matter. In 

 the case of most of our sprays, the individual particles that make up the 

 insecticide are suspended in the water. Unless a sprayer is equipped 

 with a good agitator these particles will settle to the bottom, thus render- 

 ing the mixture in the top of tank weaker than it should be, and that in 

 the bottom stronger, possibly in some cases too strong for safe applica- 

 tion. Most of the power sprayers are equipped with suitable agitators, 

 and none should be purchased unless it is known that it is efficient in 

 this respect. 



It is needless to say that the care of spraying machinery should never 

 be neglected. The man who pays $400 for an outfit can not well afford to 

 let it stand out over winter where metal parts will rust, where the tank 

 will dry out and deteriorate, if it is a wooden one. Too often gasoline 

 engines are ruined because water is left in the cooling jacket until cold 

 weather comes on. It freezes there and the engine is useless until an- 

 other cylinder is purchased. 



Much of the trouble with a gasoline power sprayer could be prevented 

 if care were exercised in the fall to clean the outfit thoroughly, to drain 

 the engine, to care for the nozzles, leads of hose, etc. Then, in the spring, 

 another careful overhauling ought to put it in such shape that there 

 should be little trouble during the spraying season. 



Not only should all this be done, but always after a lime and sulphur 

 or other caustic spray is used, the machine should be thoroughly cleaned 

 by running clear water through it, including hose, rod and nozzles. The 

 spray will not only injure different parts of the machine, but will also 

 harden and small pieces will clog nozzles when again used. 



