REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 33 



Theoretically the ideal course to follow would be to have the weathermen 

 warn us at least two and better three or four days ahead that a spell of wet 

 weather is coming and to have the fruit grower take advantage of this warning 

 and spray at once. Unfortunately the weathermen can seldom predict the 

 weather so far ahead. There is also the further difficulty that even if they 

 could there would not infrequently be mo.-e than one such spell, thus requiring 

 more than one spraying. Now so far as I can judge it would be difficult to 

 convince our fruitgrowers that the}^ should give more than one spray before 

 the pink spray for experience seems to show that more than one would seldom 

 pay. So that the question comesdown to, what time should the first spray as 

 a rule be given to secure the best results. 



Many answer this by saying "Spray when the leaflets are the size of a 

 mouse's ear." This has worked fairh' well but I believe that, inasmuch as 

 our main object is to keep the fruit protected it would be wiser to direct our 

 growers to postpone the spray just as late as possible and yet be able to finish 

 it before the pink spray should begin. So nn^ suggestion would be to wait 

 until the blossom-bud clusters have appeared on the earlier varieties and are 

 just beginning to do so on most of the later ones. By spraying them we 

 should be taking the earliest opportunity to protect the fruit itself from scab; 

 for the bases of these blossoms develop into the fruit itself and so an infection 

 on them means a scabby apple. This late date of spraying would some years 

 allow some danger of the leaflets becoming infested before the application was 

 given, but the infection would seldom be great and it seems to me safer to 

 risk leaf infections than fruit infection. 



There has occurred to me a possible alternative in the nature of a com- 

 promise between this late date of spraying and spraying soon after the buds 

 burst; namely, to spray the whole orchard from one side, with the wind, as 

 soon as the buds have burst and the leaflets are just beginning to appear and 

 in doing so to try to cover most of the tree by stopping just as you come to 

 it and shooting the spray all through it in one definite direction and then, 

 after driving just past the tree shooting the spray back all through it in a direc- 

 tion about right-angles to the first direction; then after this application to wait 

 until the blosson-bud clusters, as said above, were appearing and spray the 

 opposite side of the tree in the same thorough manner. 



Some would call this two applications but if so they would take very 

 little more time than an ordinar}^ spray and would not only protect the fruit 

 but do much to protect the foliage also. 



I am throwing out these suggestions with the hope that by further exper- 

 imenting we may be able to improve upon our recommendations to fruit 

 growers. 



