April, '11] WORTHLEY: WOODLAND SPRAYING - ISO' 



sachusetts since 1892, it is only within a comparatively brief time that 

 it has been on an extensive scale, so much so that it has been necessary 

 to improve our spraying apparatus, so that a large amount of work 

 could be done in a short space of time. In this year's work, approx- 

 imately^ 500 tons of arsenate of lead were used in the suppression of 

 the gypsy and brown-tail moths in Massachusetts, which necessitated 

 the use of 200 power sprayers and 275 hand outfits. When spraying 

 was first carried on in this work, the only apparatus which we had 

 were hand pumps, 3^2-11^(^1^ hose, Bordeaux or Vermorel nozzles, fur- 

 nishing only mist spray. These pumps were mounted on barrels,, 

 which were in some cases mounted on wheels, and oftentimes it was- 

 necessary to put them in express wagons. These were considered 

 at that time very satisfactory, and this size of apparatus was used in 

 the work until 1900. Although considerable experimental work was 

 carried on by the State Board of Agriculture at that time, few im- 

 provements were made. 



The work against the moths by the state was stopped in 1900 and 

 the insects allowed to go unmolested until May, 1905. Necessarily^ 

 the problem grew much larger, and the infestation in some localities 

 was very severe. When the work was resumed under the direction 

 of the Commonwealth, it was necessary to have improved apparatus. 

 Owing to the fact that power sprayers had been introduced in 1895, 

 and used by Mr. J. A. Pettigrew with the solid stream method, that 

 is, spraying the trees from the ground, we considered that it was neces- 

 sary for our department to have larger apparatus than had been 

 previously used in the work. Several power sprayers were introduced 

 by different manufacturers, their motive power being gasoline instead 

 of steam as was used by Mr. Pettigrew. These machines did quite 

 effective work, but they were not much of an improvement over the 

 hand apparatus, as it was necessary to use the same small hose, 

 Bordeaux and Vermorel nozzles, and climb the trees. They were not 

 capable of maintaining pressure that would allow us to use a solid 

 stream and give good results. The engines which were used on these 

 sprayers were of the stationary type, and, owing to the fact that they 

 had but one cylinder, so much vibration resulted that the apparatus 

 depreciated rapidly. Duplex pumps were used also, and proved to 

 be very unsatisfactory, as they did not give a steady pressure, even 

 when small hose and mist nozzles were used. 



Owing to these facts, it was necessary to induce the manufacturers 

 to give us better and larger apparatus that would be more adapted to 

 the work, and in 1907 and 1908 larger outfits were available. They 

 were mounted on dead axle wagons, 400-gallon tanks, heavy triplex 

 pumps, and mostly two-cylinder marine engines, although some of 



