Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 



563 



COST OF SPRAYING. 



It is rather difficult to estimate the exact cost of spraying for 

 different orchards or for different individuals, owing to the vari- 

 able size of trees and amount of mixture per tree that might be 

 used by different persons. For combined sprays there is not a 

 great deal of difference in the cost of Bordeaux mixture and lime- 

 sulphur. The latter is perhaps slightly cheaper. Estimating 

 concentrated lime- sulphur worth sixteen cents per gallon and 

 arsenate of lead worth eight cents per pound, the material used in 

 one hundred gallons of spray mixture ready to apply to the trees 

 would cost eighty cents, a trifle over three- fourths of a cents per 

 gallon. For the average twelve or thirteen-year-old tree at least 

 ten gallons of mixture per tree will be required in making the first 

 spraying for codling moth if the work is thoroughly done. For 

 other sprayings five to seven gallons per tree may be sufficient. 



Labor usually amounts to about one-third to one- half as much 

 as the cost of material, provided the machinery works well. Esti- 

 mating team and driver at three dollars per day and two nozzlemen 

 at a dollar and a half per day each, the cost of labor would be six 

 dollars per day. With such a force and a good machine there is no 

 reason why eighteen hundred to two thousand gallons of mixture 

 should not be sprayed out each day, provided the water supply is 

 reasonably convenient. If three nozzlemen are used and the mix- 

 ture is delivered to the machine by means of a supply tank, three 



thousand to thirty-five hundred gallons 

 may be sprayed out in a day. This would 

 bring the cost of a season's spraying of 

 five applications at about thirty-five cents 

 per tree, or an average of seven cents per 

 tree for application. As spraying is 

 usually done, however, the cost for the 

 season is much less than this estimate. 

 For eighteen to twenty-year-old-trees 

 the cost per tree for the season should be 

 about one-third to one-half more than 

 for twelve-year-old trees. If only three 

 applications are made the cost would be about one-third less than 

 for five applications. 



Petals down. Stamens dry. 



