SPRA YING EXPERIMENTS. 



'3 



matter, and not well drained. When the 

 buds were one year old a large percentage 

 of them were six feet high. The next year 

 ■we cut them down as usual to force 

 them to form branches, and at the end of 

 the two years the majority of the trees were 

 6 feet high. I had occasion to go through 

 the block daily to cut branches off for bud- 

 ding on quince stock. 



In August I discovered one morning that 

 some trees, which, the day before were per- 

 fectly healthy, had turned black, the sap 

 in the body had also turned a dark color, 

 and the trees gave out an unpleasant odor. 

 I cut everv one of them out and burned 



them, assuming that the disease was con- 

 tagious. Every night and morning I went 

 through the block removing every dis- 

 eased tree, and before the epidemic passed 

 I cut out at least 2,000 trees out of the 5,000 

 in the block. 



In the same year 1 had another block of 

 pears on quince, the same age, but on well 

 drained ground, which was not so rich, 

 i nese trees made a growth of three and a 

 half to four feet in the two years. The 

 two blocks were within 1,000 feet of each 

 other. There were very few deaths in the 

 well-drained block. I had the same ex- 

 perience with plum trees. 



LATEST RESULTS FROM SPRAYING FOR SAN JOSE SCALE 



PROP. R. HARCOURT^ ONT. AGRI. COLLEGE, GUELPH. 



DURING the season of .1897 the San 

 Jose scale was first discovered in the 

 orchards of Ontario. Since that time the 

 scale has caused serious damage and loss, 

 especially to the owners of peach orchards ; 

 but, thanks to the energetic manner in which 

 the matter was taken in hand by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, we are now able to say 

 that methods for the controlling of this pest 

 have been devised and are m operation and 

 that the majority of the fruit growers recog- 

 nize that the scale may he controlled and the 

 vigor of an orchard maintained independent 

 "of its surroundings. It may not be possi- 

 ble to entirely eradicate the scale, and. like 

 the potato bug, it may always be with us ; 

 but, just as the proper use of arsenical 

 poisons may be used to control the latter, so 

 the lime-sulphur wash may be used for the 

 former and with equally good results. 



One pleasing feature in connection with 

 the application of the lime-sulphur wash is 

 that it has greatly benefited the trees in other 

 ways. To ascertain whether it is possible 

 to still further cheapen and simplify the pre- 

 ventives for the scale the following experi- 

 ments were undertaken : 



In reporting the latest results from spray- 

 ing for San Jose scale, I wish first to draw 

 your attention to the trial of the relative effi- 

 ciency of the lime-sLilphur wash and the Mc- 

 Bain Mixture. This test was made in the 

 orchard of ]\Ir. Bunting, St. Catharines, and 

 under the auspices of a special committee 

 appointed by the Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion. The orchard selected consists of 65 

 thrifty growing but badly infested peach 

 trees. Before the spraying was done each 

 tree was carefully examined by Messrs. 

 Buntmg, Thompson and Healey, the mem- 

 bers of the committee, and by Prof. Loch- 

 head, and full notes were made regarding 

 the condition of the scale on each tree. 



Every other row was then sprayed with 

 the lin\e-sulphur wash, and the intervening 

 rows with the McBain Mixture. The ap- 

 plication of the former was attended to by 

 '\\x. Bunting and of the latter by Mr. Mc- 

 Bain. Both men were allowed to make the 

 spraying as thorough as they saw fit, but 

 nothing further was to be put on the trees 

 until after they were examined by the com- 

 mittee. The lime-sulphur wash was the 

 same as was being sold in the neighborhood 



* A paper reid at the Annual Convention of the Oniaio Fruit Gro\ver>' Association during November ami which was crowded out of 

 the December issue owing to lack of space, 



