Kebriiary. iqi4 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



29 



Spraying Suggestions 



Rev. Father M. Leopold, La Trappe, Que. 



BE thorough. This is one of the essen- 

 tials in proper spraying. Do not 

 leave a tree until you have covered 

 it entirely with the spray solution, trunk, 

 branches, and foliage. With a good an- 

 gle nozzle it is very easy to drench the 

 leaves from underneath and on top. Each 

 tree should receive a liberal quantity of 

 the spray mixture. I never leave a tree 

 lx;fore seeing the solution dripping from 

 the leaves. In spraying for the codling 

 moth it vi^ould be better to use the drive 

 type nozzle. 



Get good constant pressure from your 

 spraying machine. The manner in 

 which spraying is done determines very 

 often the quality of the crop of fruit that 

 you may produce. The very best re- 

 sults in spraying are hard to obtain with 

 the use of poor machinery. Power spray- 

 ing is bound to become one of the best 

 factors in the management of the mod- 

 ern orchard. Power sprayers are cap- 

 able of giving a pressure impossible with 

 a hand machine. Any one who has 

 worlced the handle of a barrel pump hour 

 after hour knows that with its use a 

 pressure of more than one hundred 

 pounds is almost out of the question. 

 Our modern gasoline outfits will easily 

 maintain a pressure of one hundred and 

 fifty to two hundred pounds and more 

 with three leads of hose- 

 Do not ask one machine to do the 

 work of two or more. Generally speak- 

 ing, only two acres a day can be well 

 sprayed, with one power machine, al- 

 lowing that nine tanks can be applied in 

 a day. Allowing also the maximum time 

 of ten days for the calyces to remain 

 open, only twenty acres of orchard can 

 be treated with one machine. 



A GOOD AGITATOR EEQUIEED 



Have a good agitator fixed to your 

 pump and outfit ; the agitation of the 

 liquid in the tank is an important mat- 

 ter. In the case of most of our sprays, 

 like arsenate of lead and bordeaux mix- 

 ture, the individual particles that make 

 up the fungicide or insecticide, are sus- 

 pended in the water. Unless the liquid 

 is kept well agitated, these particles will 

 settle in the bottom of the tank, thus 

 rendering the mixture in the top of the 

 tank weaker than it should be, and that 

 in the bottom stronger, possibly too 

 strong for the foliage. The use of soap 

 to retard settling of certain arsenicals 

 is said to be beneficial. Avoid all hap- 

 hazard methods in spraying, and you 

 will be well repaid for the trouble. It is 

 not sport indeed to handle lime-sulphur 

 wash in the orchard ; but if you intend 

 to ma'ke things good, then take the 

 trouble to see for yourself that every- 

 thing is ready for each spraying. Per- 

 sonally I enjoy spraying, no matter what 



sort of spray mixture I use, if I feel that 

 by my efforts I am saving my crop of 

 apples. 



Prof. J. R. R. Parker, in a practical 

 article in Better Fruit, has shown that 

 the addition of soap to arsenate of lead 

 will help very much in keeping this valu- 

 able insecticide in suspension for a long 

 time. He summarizes the w^hole mat- 

 ter in the following lines : 



"The addition of common laundry 

 soap at the rate of two bars to fifty gal- 

 lons, to an arsenate of lead mixture, re- 

 tards the settling of the arsenate of 

 lead, only half as much settling out of 

 a soap mixture in fifteen minutes as set- 

 tled out of a non-soap mixture in the 

 same time. Above a certain quantity, the 

 amount of soap used appears to have 

 little influence upon the amount of set- 



tling. Two bars to fifty gallons is about 

 the least to be used, and in practical 

 work it would be safer to use three bars 

 to every fifty gallons. Whale oil soap 

 gave slightly better results than the more 

 expensive laundry soaps. By the addi- 

 tion of soap a more even distribution of 

 arsenate of lead was secured, and the 

 amount left in the bottom of the spray 

 can was reduced to about twenty-five 

 per cent." 



As we have obtained very godd results 

 in following out Prof. Parker's advice, 

 in spraying our orchards at La Trappe, 

 I can not help saying it would be a 

 good thing for others to try also. 



It is more important for almost every 

 disease that the spraying should be done 

 just before rain rather than after. The 

 rain won't wash it off, provided it has 

 dried after it has been put on. — Prof. 

 L. Caesar, O'A.C, Guelph, Ont. 



Rev. Father Leopold, Past Preiident of the Province of Quebec Fruit Growers' Association, 



under a Fameuse Apple Tree in the Orchard of the Agricultural College at La Trappe, 



Que., where Thorough Spraying is Practised 



