RESULTS FROM POWER SPRAYING 



U ''I'^llli power sprayer 1 purchased last 

 X .April," said Air. R. H. Lewis, of 

 Hamilton, to a representative of The Horti- 

 culturist, " has given nie excellent satisfac- 

 tion. With it i spray over 6000 trees and 

 4000 grape vines. Previous to last spring 

 I had done the spraying for four yearj with 

 a hand spra)er. These hand si)raycrs 

 should be called ' man killers,' tliey are so 

 hard on the people who operate them, 

 llu'ee men were required to use the hand 

 spra)er. To spray three a/res of solid 

 fruit re(|uired seven days, duriug which we 

 usually had plenty of breakdowns. Using 

 the power sprayer last year only two and a 

 half to three days were required and the 

 work was much better done. 



" With the hand sprayer 1 found it im- 

 possible to apply the spray thoroughly, as 

 the force was not sufficient to send the spray 

 to all portions of the trees, especially the 

 large ones. This meant that in the case of 

 plums the center of the trees were frequently 

 not reached by the spray and the fruit was 

 usually badly damaged. With the power 

 sprayer the spray penetrated to every part 

 of the tree and consequentl} the results 

 were better than those obtained with the old 

 hand pump. 



" j\Iy sprayer obtains its power from the 

 hind axle. I drive between the rows of 

 trees with a man on each side of the sprayer, 

 each man spraying the trees on his side. 

 Six and sometimes eight nozzles are used. 

 In this way the work is done rapidly and 

 thoroughly. It is possible for one man to 

 drive the team and spray the trees on one 

 side, but it is hard work urdess the trees are 

 very small. 



A S.WING IS MADE). 



" In addition to the saving of time that 

 is made when the power sprayer is used 

 there is a big saving in material. Formerly 

 I used to apply 250 pounds of vitriol, while 

 this year I only used 100 pounds, but I used 

 50 pounds of caustic soda in addition. I 



am a strong believer in the caustic soda and 

 sulphur wash used before the buds appear 

 and while the wood is dormant. It is, how- 

 ever, a mixture that has to be used very 

 carefully. The caustic soda cleans the 

 trees of every kind of fungus and rids them 

 of all insects, giving the trees a very nice 

 gloss. Cherry trees, after the iViixture is 

 applied, look as if they had been polished, 

 'i'his mixture can be applied too strongly, 

 however, in which case the trees will be in- 

 jured, but the use of reasonable proportions 

 gives good results. 1 use 15 to 17 pounds 

 of caustic soda to 100 gallons of water. 1 

 have had no experience in San Jose scale, 

 but believe that this mixture would be an 

 elYectual remed}- for the scale. 



" I generally spray twice, before and after 

 the buds appear, and plums, pears and 

 grapes four times, tor the plums and pears 

 t use the Bordeaux mixture except for the 

 tirst application, when caustic soda is used. 

 Peaches are first sprayed with the caustic 

 soda and sulphur solution in the proportion 

 of 30 to 35 pounds of sulphur mixed with 

 15 to 17 gallons of water. The second ap- 

 plication is made with the iiordeaux mix- 

 ture. Last year I applied the caustic soda 

 mixture to part of my trees. The trees on 

 which it was used produced peaches, but 

 those on which I iir.u put the Bordeaux mix- 

 ture both tmies did not yield. This year I 

 intend to use the caustic soda application 

 on all my trees. 



" I have about 135 cherry trees of the 

 Early Richmond and Large Montmorency 

 varieties. I sprayed three times with Bor- 

 deaux mixture, there being five to seven 

 days between each application. It requires 

 about one hour each time to spray these 

 trees. The total cost, including the tim€, 

 labor and value of the mixture amounted to 

 about $3. As a result of the spraying I 

 secured over 700 baskets of cherries. I 

 sold the crop for 85 cents to $1 per basket, 

 and it netted me nearly $700. One of my 



