200 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



3-4 EDWARD VII., A. 19a4 



be done either directly over the fire in iron kettles or in barrels by means of a jet of 

 Bteam. Mr. G. E. Fisher describes his method of preparing this useful wash on a large 

 fccale, as follows: — 



' There are a great many ways of preparing lime and sulphur wash for spraying, 

 and nearly every one who does it prefers his own way. When large orchards are to be 

 treated, it is not practicable to cook the material to be used, by boiling it in kettles 

 ever the fire. In my practice I found that, with the aid of steam from an ordinary 

 threshing engine, this most effective spraying material could Ae supplied in large 

 quantity perfectly cooked and at a cost of from one cent to one and a half cents per 

 gallon. A 12-horse power boiler will not furnish steam enough to cook 12 barrels at 

 once, without extra heavy firing, and, with ordinary firing, such a boiler will not pro- 

 perly run more than 8 or 9 barrels, which will cook probably about 1,200 gallons of 

 spraying material in 10 hours. The greatest drain upon the steam is in starting, when 

 the water is all cold, and, to expedite matters and get some of the barrels under weigh, 

 I found considerable advantage in starting about one third of them. We fill four bar- 

 rels one-quarter full and then turn on the steam. With steam at from 80 to 100 lbs. 

 pressure, these will be boiling in five minutes, when the steam is turned off 

 these and on to four more barrels, and all the lime and sulphur are put into 

 the first four as quickly as possible without making them boil over. It is best to 

 turn off the steam while the lime is being slaked, as it lessens the danger of making 

 the mixture boil over. When the lime is all slaked, the steam is turned on again and 

 the mixture is left boiling until cooked. When the second four barrels are boiling, 

 the steam is turned on to the third lot as with the first two, always returning the steam 

 to the barrels as soon as the lime is all slaked. Managing in this way, we always had 

 some material ready for use. That which is prepared late in the evening will still be warm 

 enough in the morning, even in cold weather. In order to make up for the loss of 

 liquid from boiling and to gradually fill the barrels to the proper depth, a small stream 

 of cold water was kept dribbling into them at a rate which allowed the barrels to fill in 

 the course of the two or three hours' cooking necessary to reduce the sulphur. In this 

 way the mixture was kept boiling all the time and the necessary amount of liquid was 

 added. For boiling the mixture in the barrels, we have a quarter-inch pipe which 

 reaches down to within four inches of the bottom of each barrel, and each pipe is pro- 

 vided with a stop-cock.' 



* When using a kettle, if I have only one, it is filled about one-third full and 

 brought to a boil. The lime and sulphur are then added, and an old tin pail with a 

 small hole in the bottom is hung over the kettle, and cold water dribbling from it into 

 the kettle replaces the water which evaporates with boiling and increases the quantity. 

 When kettles are used, if there are two, one may be used for heating water ; for, while 

 the mixture is cooking, cold water should not be added in sufficient quantity to check 

 the boiling. I have generally slaked the lime in the barrels or kettles as it was re- 

 qiiired, but on some occasions we slaked it in another barrel by throwing boiling water 

 over it and with just as good results. We certainly got our best results where each 

 gallon of the wash contained one pound of lime and half a pound of sulphur, which 

 we cooked from two to three hours. It is true Dr. Forbes got his wonderful results 

 from a less quantity cooked one and a quarter hours. Mr. Pease, the California Scale 

 Inspector, says it must be cooked at least three hours and that more cooking is better. 

 He believes that this wash is of little use unless sufficiently cooked. We had good re- 

 sults and perhaps should be satisfied, but I think we have good reasons for using the 

 larger quantity of material and cooking a long time. In Michigan again they used 

 less material even than Dr. Forbes. A very common proportion in the United States 

 is 40 lbs. of lime, 20 lbs. of sulphur, 15 lbs. of salt, in 50 imperial gallons of water.' 



Dr. S. A. Forbes, who has been very successful in fighting the San Jose Scale, uses 

 the Oregon wash and is quite satisfied with it. Writing at the end of the season of 

 1903, he says: * I am still using the ordinary Oregon wash o^ 15 lbs. of lime, 15 lbs. 

 of sulphur and li lbs. of blue vitriol, dissolving the lime and sulphur by boiling for 



