ORCHARD SPRAYING IN 1916. 115 



said. "Then will it be any better if it stays on longer?" "Laugh- 

 ter.) 



Lime-sulphur is a corrosive that kills any fungi, insect eggs 

 or insects that it touches. It kills them then when it touches 

 them, not tomorrow or next week or anything of that kind. Bor- 

 deaux mixture is a fungicide that prevents the growth of fungi, 

 and no fungi will grow there as long as there is any bordeaux 

 mixture present. One is a preventive and the other is a destroy- 

 ing agent; that is the difference between the two. Isn't that 

 right? 



Mr. Simmons : Yes, sir. 



Mr. Smith : There are insects that eat for a living, like the 

 codling moth and a number of beetles and bugs. Arsenate of lead 

 is a good agent to destroy those because if they taste of it they 

 die, and arsenate of lead will remain for a long time where you 

 put it if it is properly prepared. Lime-sulphur will destroy any- 

 thing that it touches, and we use that for such things as do not 

 eat for a living but do sucking for it. I have been asked hun- 

 dreds of times: "What shall I spray my trees with?" The 

 answer is : "What are you going to spray for?" and I am entirely 

 out of sympathy with the idea of mixing sprays. Know what you 

 are going to spray for and the best time to spray for that thing, 

 and then spray for that and you will do a good job. This going 

 hit or miss style — I know one man that went to the trouble of tak- 

 ing every kind of spray material that he saw listed and mixed 

 them all up together and sprayed with it just after his trees were 

 leaved out. The very first thing is to know what you are spray- 

 ing for, and then you can get from the bulletins of your experi- 

 ment stations the calendars that will show the period when it is 

 best to spray. 



I was a little surprised yesterday when they were discussing 

 the brown rot in plums that somebody didn't say, "Spray with 

 lime-sulphur." I had thirty acres of Italian prunes in 1906 ; they 

 were very badly affected with brown rot and a great many of 

 those brown-rotted prunes were left on the ground. I got all the 

 information I could on the subject, and the following spring just 

 after the blossoms had fallen I sprayed thoroughly with a mild 

 solution of lime-sulphur, with the result we didn't have any 

 brown rot. Now, I would have thought perhaps that wasn't 

 worth much except for the fact that just over the hill, half a mile 

 from there, there were some trees that were not sprayed, and 

 they had as much rot on them as they had had the year before. 



What the gentleman said about this rusting and blistering, 

 and so forth, — weather conditions have a great deal to do with 

 that. I think you can spray with bordeaux mixture when the 

 trees and fruit are dry without much danger of getting any rust 

 from it, but I would never undertake to spray a valuable apple 

 orchard with bordeaux mixture when it was windy and rainy 

 because you are then liable to get the rot from that. (Applause.) 



The President : Very much obliged to you, Mr. Smith. 



