494 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
SPRAYING FRUIT TREES. 
(Edited by Eugene Secor, Forest City, Ia., and published by the National 
Bee-Keeper’s Association.) 
The subject of spraying has become so important, in view of increasing 
insect enemies, that some of the latest recommendations, by persons who 
have given the matter study and practical experiment, are appended. The 
most of these experiments have been conducted by men trained to the habit 
of close observation. They were also conducted solely in the interest of 
truth and the public good. 
The practice of some unthinking farmers of spraying trees while in fuli 
bloom is considered by all horticultural schools and by the government ex- 
perimenters as useless, if not injurious to the bloom, and harmful to the 
insects which are valuable assistants in making fruitful orchards. 
A spraying calendar published in 1g00 by John Craig,.Professor of Hor- 
ticulture at the Iowa Agricultural College, gives very full instructions about 
spraying to kill the various enemies to fruit and foliage, and he nowhere re- 
commends arsenites or other poisonous mixtures while the trees are in 
bloom. The following are among the recommendations for coddling moth 
and bud moth: 
Apples.—Bordeaux mixture and Paris green. “‘Just before blossoms 
open.” “‘(Important.)”’ 
Same mixture “soon after blossoms fall.’ “(Important.)” 
Pear.—“Bordeaux, just before blossoms open.” “(Important.)” 
“Bordeaux and Paris green soon after the blossoms fall.” *‘*(Import- 
ant.)” 
Plum.—For bud moth and curculio: Copper sulphate and Paris green 
“before buds open’; Bordeaux and Paris green “soon after blossoms have 
fallen.”” ‘‘(Important.)” 
Other instructions are given, but as it is not intended to give full in- 
structions here, only such quotations are made as apply to the blooming 
period. 
A spraying calendar is also issued by the Ohio Agricultural Experiment 
Station. Nowhere does it recommend spraying the apple, pear, cherry or 
plum during the blossoming period. 
Professor L. H. Bailey, of Cornell University, says: “The grower him- 
self must decide when and how often to spray, because he should know 
what enemies he desires to reach. If he has bud moth he should spray with 
the first swelling of the buds, and if he has plum scale he should spray in 
the winter. But, leaving the special insects aside, it is safe to say that for 
the two staple enemies—the apple scab and the codling moth—at least two 
sprayings should be given. JI am not yet convinced that spraying when the 
tree is dormant has any appreciable effect in destroying the apple scab fun- 
gus. As a general statement, I should say spray twice upon apples and pears 
—once just as the fruit buds break open, but before the flowers expand, and 
again just as the last blossoms fall. In both cases I should use a combina- 
tion of Bordeaux mixture and Paris green. The first spraying is for the 
scab fungus in particular, and for this the Bordeaux is used; but the Paris 
green will most likely be of service in destroying various leaf eating insects. 
—Bulletin ror, Cornell University Agricultural Ex. Sta., by L. H. Bailey. 
