The Canadian Horticulturi^ 



Vol. XXXV 



JUNE, 1912 



No. o 



I 



ALL men know, and a few practically 

 realize, that any work thoroughly 

 done gives better results than the 

 same work carelessly put through. This 

 .knowledge should be applied to the work 

 of spraying. 



THE BUD MOTH 



The bud moth is the earliest insect we 

 are up against in Nova Scotia, and for 

 many years we have felt that we had his 

 life history down pat as well as the 

 means necessary to 

 combat him. But now 

 our s c i e n t i sts are 

 working hard to up- 

 set old theories and 

 recommend new ones 

 as well as new prac- 

 tises, and we very 

 soon will be viewing 

 the bud moth from 

 another s t a n dpoint, 

 and accomplishing his 

 destruction in a 

 different manner. My 

 reason for the doubt 

 expressed is that one 

 of our new scientists 

 stated to me recently 

 that our early spray 

 was for the bud moth. 

 Certain it is, he is a 

 destructive little 

 wretch, and we have 

 felt that his work 

 was of sufficient im- 

 portance to warrant 

 the necessity of a 

 strongly poisoned 

 spray early in the sea- 

 son just as the fruit buds were swelling 

 or as the warm days come. 



The bud moth is alive all winter as a 

 small brown worm with a black head. 

 He hides himself under a little rubbish in 

 the axil of a bud or the angle between the 

 twig and the bud. He bores a very 

 small hole into the blossom and eats out 

 the vital part, and later emerges and 

 rolls himself in the leaf that has opened. 



The fact that the hole he makes in 

 entering the bud is small is the reason 

 we want a strong spray thoroughly ap- 

 plied on those buds when the little fel- 

 low leaves his winter quarters. At 

 least ! so scientists of the last decade 

 and experience have taught us, and this 

 spray generally is applied in May from 

 the fifth to fifteenth. 



Summer Spraying 



R. J. Messenger, Bridgetown, N. S. 



Our other enemies in Nova Scotia are 

 brown tail moth and canker worm, of 

 which we have just finished a cycle. A 

 little codling moth and a few lesser ene- 

 mies all controlled by the later spray- 

 ings with which we will deal, and the 

 great enemy of growers who want clean- 

 skinned fruit — the apple scab fungus. 



M.\TERIALS TO USE 



In the use of materials also, we are 

 transitory and know not what a season 



A Power Spraying Outfit suitable for use in Large Orchards and on Tall Trees 



may bring forth. Outside of the great 

 mass of trash of a proprietary nature 

 that is constantly being brought to the 

 notice of the public, and which no intelli- 

 gent orchardist bothers with, unless it 

 is strongly recommended by our experi- 

 ment stations, there are two principal 

 mixtures of fungicidal value. These are 

 the old bordeaux, which we all know how 

 to mix, and the newer lime-sulphur, 

 which none of us liked to mix before we 

 got the commercial ready-to-wear stuff. 

 Now the strain of spraying has shifted 

 from our muscles and time to our poc- 

 kets and we save the former and pay 

 the other fellow to prepare our ma- 

 teriaL 



Men are like sheep, and it only needs 

 a little recommendation from men who 



U7 



riiay be financially interested to draw 

 after them the whole unthinking flock 

 in a scramble after the new thing. We 

 all like to be popular, but still I would 

 not condemn our old friend bordeaux, 

 even if many lay the russetting of fruit 

 at his door. In any case, I shall use 

 bordeaux for spraying potatoes, and we 

 may not find in lime-sulphur, after ten 

 years' unprejudiced use, the bonanza it 

 appears at present. By buying it in com- 

 mercially prep ared 

 form much-wanted 

 time is saved and we 

 will use it for a while 

 at least. For dor- 

 mant spraying, we 

 use of the commercial 

 preparation, such as 

 is sold by the Nia- 

 gara Spray Com- 

 pany, about one gal- 

 lon to ten of water. 

 For the later sprays, 

 about one gallon to 

 thirty or forty of 

 water. 



USE OF ARSENATE 



For insecticides, 

 the only spray strong- 

 ly r e c o mmended is 

 arsenate of lead on 

 the ground that it is 

 harmless to the foli- 

 age and yet kills the 

 bugs. It is also found 

 to increase ''he fungi- 

 cidal p r o p e rties of 

 the lime-sulphur with 

 which it is mixed. 

 In my own experience it is not extreme- 

 ly harmful to anything except the or- 

 chardist 's pocket, and unless severely 

 agitated it settles to the bottom of the 

 cask and stays there. However, its ex- 

 pense spells profit to the sellers, and the 

 former are always legitimate prey. It 

 is safe and won't burn your trees. It is 

 mildly active, and if you put it in in 

 sufficient quantities to allow for what 

 settles to the bottom of the cask and give 

 the bugs a good feed, you will be doing 

 the popular thing, and no one will criti- 

 cise. In the meantime, we realize that 

 we have not attained the perfect spray 

 mixture. After two years' experience, 

 I am strongly tempted to go back to the 

 bordeaux and the quick-acting, sure, in- 

 expensive, and if intelligently used, non- 



