lie (anadian "Horticoltdrist 



MAY, 1904 



Volume XXVII 



Number 5 



CO-OPERATIVE POWER SPRAYING IN CANADA 



W. A. MACKINNON, CHIEF FRUIT DIVISION, OTTAWA. 



''T^ HOUGH the fruit growing public of 

 i. Canada has had instruction and en- 

 couragement in spraying for a number of 

 years, it has begun to appear evident that 

 small owners, as a rule, do not make a suc- 

 cess of spraying by the ordinary methods. 

 Many difficulties have combined to bring 

 about this result. Among them may be 

 mentioned the fact that the operation of 

 spraying is unpleasant, inconvenient and 

 highly distasteful to the average farmer. 



It is totally different from his usual occu- 

 pations ; requires a plant* and chemicals with 

 which he is not familiar, and which must be 

 handled with scientific accuracy if success is 

 to be achieved ; the plant remains idle dur- 

 ing the greater part of the year, and finally, 

 the work must be done just at a time when 

 many other farm operations are pressing. 

 Even those who have purchased an outfit 

 and devoted much time to working it have 

 sometimes failed to apply the mixture at 

 exactly the right time or to distribute it 

 thoroughly over every part of the tree, and 

 the resulting failure has discouraged them 

 and their neighbors from further eflFort. 



Consideration of these facts, among 

 others, induced the Honorable the Minister 

 of Agriculture, to authorize the conducting 



of systematic experiments in power spray- 

 ing during the spring and summer of 1903. 

 The most successful of these were carried 

 on in the neighborhood of Woodstock, and 

 resulted in the production of almost the only 

 No. I fruit in that section. The season hap- 

 pened to be a particularly bad one for fun- 

 gous diseases in that part of Ontario, and 

 the sprayed orchards, yielding 80 to 90 per 

 cent, of perfect fruit, were in marked con- 

 trast to those which surrounded them, in 

 which the yield of No. i fruit varied from 

 20 to 50 per cent. 



Without going into details it may be 

 stated that the spraying, which was per- 

 formed itour or five times on each orchard, 

 at a fixed charge to the growers amounting 

 to rather less than actual cost, was found 

 both effective and economical, though the 

 route was long and straggling, and some of 

 the orchards were in by no means perfect 

 condition as regards pruning and otherwise. 

 The operation cost less than five cents per 

 tree for each spraying. One should not 

 speak with too much certainty after a single 

 season's experience, but it seems probable 

 that five cents per " tree spraying " should 

 more than cover the cost for well grown 

 apple trees. A 2^ horse power engine was 



