ORCHARD SPRAYING IN 1916. 109 



Orchard Spraying in 1916. 



HAROLD SIMMONS, FRUIT GROWER, HOWARD LAKE. 



The season of 1916 will be remembered by apple growers 

 of Minnesota as the season of seasons, demonstrating the ab- 

 solute necessity of spraying if one is to conduct apple grow- 

 ing as a business to success. 



In the past three or four years I have visited quite a 

 number of Minnesota orchards, and the feature that has im- 

 pressed me most is the lack of systematic pruning and uni- 

 formatory among the trees of different varieties. 



Whether it is a lack of knowledge or just plain indifference 

 on the part of the man that suffers the trees to occupy land 

 that might be employed to better advantage, I am unable to 

 tell. They seem to be trusting to the "powers that be" to 

 furnish them a crop of fruit, whether they make any effort to 

 obtain it or not. I should think that the past season would 

 have shown them the futility of trying to grow commercial 

 apples without employing up-to-date methods in pruning, spray- 

 ing, etc., and that it would stimulate them to make some effort 

 along those lines. 



We have sprayed our orchard for eight years consecutively 

 to the best of our knowledge and ability, and the necessity for 

 doing so seems to be emphasized more and more as the sea- 

 sons roll by. 



We sprayed the orchard for the first time the past sea- 

 son as soon as the petals had all fallen, using commercial lime 

 sulphur and arsenate of lead, five quarts of lime sulphur and 

 two pounds of arsenate of lead to fifty gallons of water. 



We used an extra fifty pounds pressure this season, run- 

 ning the machine at 250 pounds instead of 200 pounds, as in 

 past seasons. With the extra pressure the work is apparently 

 done better and much quicker. 



We deferred the job as long as possible on account of 

 wet weather. We finally had to spray in order to catch the 

 open calyx for the arsenate of lead. It rained two or three 

 times during spraying and was cloudy for several days after. On 

 account of the rain the spray dope did not stick well, yet the 

 foliage was injured quite badly and the spraying did not check 

 the fungus. 



Owing to the wet, cloudy weather, it was nearly three 

 weeks after the first spraying before we could spray again. 



