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neglect on the part of the farmer — failure to combat orchard diseases and pests, 

 for pests mean defective fruit and often also dead trees. Spraying is the only 

 way by which this may be prevented. 



For of the three fundamental principles in fruit-growing, spraying perhaps 

 stands at the top as the most important. Orchards may be left unpruned and un- 

 cultivated, in sod in a word, but when left unsprayed, the fruit is worthless. It is 

 the lack of spraying which has hastened the decline of hundreds of farm orchards 

 and caused 'the man with a few trees to feel that it is of no use to attempt to grow 

 fruit. 



But there is a greater opportunity to-day with the average farm orchard con- 

 sisting of 25 to 50 trees, than ever before. There is greater certainty that the trees 

 may be pKoductive of high-class fruit, and that the family cellar may be filled each 

 fall with nice, luscious, juicy, red Fameuse or Mcintosh or other varieties of 

 recognized worth, than there was half a century ago. The most destructive dis- 

 eases and insects are known, thanks to the good work done all over the country 

 by this Society and similar ones; their habits, their likes and dislikes and their 

 time of appearance are well understood; and how to control them is no more dif- 

 ficult than doing any other work on the farm. 



As we first pointed out in the beginning of this paper, the time and expense 

 required to spray the orchard is trifling, compared to the value of the fruit which 

 is produced upon it. 34 cents a tree is the approximate cost of the whole work 

 for a season, that is for the four applications, and if not willing to make the four, 

 well there are three that should always be made. A bearing tree of a certain age 

 will bear from 3 to 12 or 15 bushels of apples, according to the year. Why is it 

 then that there are so few home orchards sprayed ? The excuse can not be given 

 that spraying does not pay; the lack of time can hardly be held up as a legitimate 

 reason ; ignorance of how to do it is a very feeble way of getting out of spraying. 

 Isn't it just real laziness? 



In spraying, like every job on the farm, the hardest part is to get at it, parti- 

 cularly so when there are only a few trees to be sprayed. But there is no work 

 on the farm that pays better the time and effort put into it than that of spraying. 



Insead of cutting down the old orchard, spray it. Cut down the trees that are 

 dead or nearly so and plant new ones to take their place. Neglect the pruning if 

 you must; let grass grow in the orchard and do not, cultivate if you want to, but 

 spray and spray right, thoroughly. Every farm ought to have its orchard and 

 spraying machine. Why last year, I think that the caterpillars had this advantage 

 that they compelled many to spray, for I hear that the farmers bought more spray- 

 ing machines last year than they did in the last five years or more. We should not 

 be compelled to do good work in such a manner. Apples, plums and pears ought 

 to form just as an essential part of the home diet as ham and eggs and potatoes. 



There is no reason why the farmers should leave the growing of fruit in 

 the hands of specialists, only by abandoning the home orchard. There is no more 

 reason for this than for every farm home giving up the potato patch or the truck 

 gardening for home. A poultry specialist raises chickens that take the blue rib- 

 bon, but is, that any reason why the farm chicken yard should become either a spe- 

 cialty or be abandoned ? No. The farm orchard is an important part of the farrn, 

 and the only fault is that there is not more of them, and more spraying done in 

 the neglected orchards of the Province. 



We have not reached the stage when we can proclaim the the passing of the 



