168 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



materials. How do we know he sprayed thoroughly? He may have 

 used poor material ; it may have been too strong ; he may not have 

 applied it in the right way or at the right time, or the weather may 

 not have been favorable, or a rain may have washed it all away, and 

 many other reasons why he failed might be surmised, and whether he 

 did his work thoroughly or not. 



Those who have had most experience in spraying say that they are 

 not yet able to know just when the work has been done thoroughly — 

 for thoroughly means right, and we all admit that we have not yet 

 learned what is right in all its details. It is true that some who have 

 had the largest experience are meeting with fairly uniform success, and 

 are ready to say the principle is right, but we have a great deal to 

 learn about it yet. 



It is important that the material to be used should be of proper 

 and uniform strength, or that it be prepared in a proper manner. The 

 Bordeaux mixture is, all things considered, the best for all fungus 

 diseases, as scab, black rot, mildew, etc , and for destroying insect life 

 we add to this mixture Paris green. 



It is also important that the machine to be used has sufficient 

 power to force the mixture into a perfect spray, and at the same time 

 return a stream to the vessel to agitate the mixture so that it will reach 

 the tree or plant in uniform strength. 



The spray should settle on the tree or plant like mist, and not in 

 drops, as will be the case when too much is applied, or the spray is 

 not perfect. If the material is of sufficient strength to do good, and 

 so applied that it will stand in drops, all the strength in a drop wil^ 

 settle to one place and cause a brown spot on the leaf. 



Of all the work of the fruit-grower, spraying, in all its details, re- 

 quires the greatest amount of good common sense. No one has yet 

 become sufficiently efficient in the work to be able to lay down a set 

 of rulea that will guide anyone to success all the time. 



The season's conditions and surroundings are constantly changing, 

 and what we did at a given time last year with success would fail this 

 year if the conditions were not just the same; hence, we must use 

 judgment in discovering these changes, and when to do the work, so 

 that we may not lose our work and material ; but the benefits of a 

 spraying which might mean the loss of a large per cent of the crop* 

 The question of when to spray is more difficult to determine than either 

 the how or what with; but it has been decided by those of most expe- 

 rience that to destroy the various fungus diseases, spraying should be 

 done in the spring before the buds open, and all recommend the Bor- 

 deaux mixture alone, but stronger than the regular formula, and that it 



