SPRAYING FRUIT TREES. 425 
DON’T POISON YOUR FRIENDS. 
_In case of treatment with the Bordeaux mixture, the spraying is done 
before the blossoms are opened and, again, later in the season. The spraying 
while yet in bloom is to be strongly objected to because of its evil effect 
upon the bees and, again, because there is no use in doing this. As a remedy 
against blight or other microbe diseases which are destroyed by a solution 
of the copper salts, it should be applied very early, as soon as the buds be- 
gin to swell. It is at this time the disease is most susceptible of treatment. 
Suppose we wait till later and spray the trees while in bloom, it is probable 
the treatment is not so effective, and though it might kill the bees, it would 
not do so immediately, and so would not prevent these insects or any other 
nectar loving species from visiting other bloom and conveying the germs 
of this disease. Thus there is no excuse for ever spraying trees with poison- 
ous compounds while the blossoms are yet on the trees. 
While discussing this matter of spraying, I wish to express my gratifi- 
cation that all the entomologists have fallen into line and now discourage 
the use of Paris green and London purple in spraying trees while the blos- 
soms are still hanging. I well remember when I was alone in this position. 
Years ago I knew of colonies of bees almost depopulated by this arsenic 
poison. As I have intimated above, the bees were not at once poisoned and 
so were able to carry the poison to the hive and store it with the honey. 
This was fed to the brood, and as a result there was great mortality among 
the brood no less than with the mature bees. It is not strange that the bees 
are not at once killed. The bees do not sip the nectar from the flowers for 
their own immediate nourishment but store it in their honey stomach to be 
conveyed to the hive. Thus little, if any, of this nectar is absorbed in the 
blood, and so will not poison the bees until fed upon later, after it is di- 
gested and changed to honey. It might be argued, with no light force, 
that trees should never be sprayed with poisons while in bloom, lest per- 
sons may be poisoned who may eat the honey. Indeed, | think there would 
be great danger from this except from the fact that bees gather so little 
honey from the fruit bloom that it is rarely stored for sale, and only used by 
the bees. I am not sure that the bees would get enough of the. poison to 
hurt us, even though they did store nectar from the sprayed blossoms in the 
hive. I have reason to believe that there would not be enough poison in 
the nectar of the blossoms to do us any perceptible harm; yet I think all of 
us would prefer our honey with the Paris green left out. 
There is another reason why no one should spray their trees while yet 
in blossom. Such spraying is usually done for the codling moth, and we 
now know that the eggs are not laid on the fruit until after the blossoms 
fall, and do not hatch for some days after this. We also know that the 
wind will remove the poison, and thus to get the best results from spraying 
we should not spray until about three weeks after the trees begin to bloom, 
or until the blossoms have all fallen from the trees. 
Prof. Waite has performed a most valuable series of experiments, which 
show conclusively that we can not grow either apples or pears with the best 
success unless we mix many of the varieties and have the presence of bees 
to perform the important and often necessary work of cross-pollenization. 
There are a few insects—the bud-moths—the larve of which feed upon 
the buds. In cases where these insects are very numerous it may be well to 
spray with the arsenites. And in case of the presence of either the apple or 
