March, 1914. 



THE CANADIAN HOETTC ULTTJTITST 



CI 



Efficient Spraying Apparatus Required* 



J. M. Robinson, B.S.A., Assistant for Horticulture, Kentville, N. S. 



iRUIT growers are waking up to 



the fact that we need more effi- 

 cient apparatus if we are to do 

 our best work in spraying. Power 

 sprayers are in use in a great many Nova 

 Scotia orchards, and it is a great pity 

 that some of these are not of the best 

 type. A power sprayer should be able 

 to force not less than one hundred and 

 fifty gallons of spray through two lines 

 , of hose, with moderately coarse nozzles, 

 in from twenty-five to thirty minutes in 

 order that thorough and the most econ- 

 omical work may be done. One or two 

 points outside of the sprayer might be 

 discussed briefly with profit. 



BAKBOOS 



Any one visiting orchards in the An- 

 napolis Valley is at once impressed with 

 the enormous per cent, of scabbed fruit 

 on the tops of our large and even moder- 

 ate-sized trees. The reason for this is 

 obvious when we look closely at the 

 spraying apparatus used in the general 

 orchard. Very few towers are used on 

 outfits, and dependence for reaching the 

 tops of the trees is placed entirely in the 

 rod used. These rods are with few ex- 

 ceptions too short for the purpose. Long 

 rods are not purchased by the wholesalers 

 as they claim there is no sale for them. 



No one can reach the tops of trees 

 twenty-five feet in height with a pole ten 

 feet long. This fact was brought 

 strongly to my notice while thinning in 

 the orchard of E. I. Loomer on July 

 22nd. Mr. Loomer, who is a thorough 

 sprayer and gets results much above the 

 average, was spraying. After the tree 

 which I was thinning had been sprayed, 

 I took the trouble of investigating the 

 thoroughness of the work done. The 

 lower part of the tree was drenched, but 

 on examining the upper portion I found 

 the leaves absolutely dry and without a 

 sign of any spray. The rods used were 

 ten feet long, while the tree was some 

 twenty-three feet high, and though the 

 spray seemed to be reaching its destina- 

 tion, the top of the tree, it failed to do 

 . so. 



At the time of thinning even a careful 

 observer from the ground would fail to 

 detect scabbed fruit, but a high per cent, 

 of spotted fruit, mostly from the top of 

 the tree, was harvested. This state of 

 things is not the exception, but the rule. 

 One way of remedying this evil is to 

 purchase longer bamboos or to get a 

 tower arrangement so that we are sure 

 that we reach the top of the trees from 

 every side. 



NOZZLES 



In order to do thorough work and 

 drive spray through dense foliage, it 



•Extract from an address delivered at the 

 last annual oonventlon of the Nova Scotia Fruit 

 Growers' Aesooiation. 



seems necessary to have a spray of some 

 coarseness. If too coarse, however, it 

 does not spread, is wasteful, and there 

 is great danger of skipping. It is there- 

 fore, advisable to use a whirlpool type of 

 nozzle, with moderately coarse discs. 



TANK FILLING 



The cost of spraying depends to quite 

 an extent on the time required to fill 

 the tank. The first thing required for 

 quick filling is an abundant water supply, 

 and the second an outlet pipe or hose so 

 that the water may be had quickly. 



Mr. S. B. Chute, of Berwick, has an 

 ideal plant, with four inch outlet for 

 re-filling and a two hundred gallon spray 

 tank that can be easily filled in three 

 minutes. This means that the sprayer is 

 working practically all the time, and 

 this means reduced cost in spraying. 

 Often where water in any quantity is 

 obtainable the outfit is kept waiting for 

 fifteen to twenty-five minutes to refill on 

 account of too small an outlet. The cost 

 of installing a lead sufficient to do the 

 work in one-fifth of the time is not great 

 and the money lost by not doing so is at 

 times hard to estimate. 



An old-fashioned dash churn is cheap 

 and very effective for creaming arsenate 

 of lead. 



COST OF SPEAYING 



The cost of spraying an acre of or- 

 chard will depend on the efficiency of 

 equipment on the number of trees per 

 acre and on the size of the trees. Rough- 

 ly the cost of spraying an acre of forty 

 medium-sized trees, taking eight gallons 



per tree for each application, would be 

 as follows : 



The cost will embrace the cost of 

 three hundred and twenty gallons of 

 lime-sulphur testing 1.0085 specific grav- 

 ity, using five pounds of Sherwin Wil- 

 liams lead to one hundred gallons of 

 spray. 



The cost of application will allow forty 

 cents an hour for sprayer and gasoline, 

 operating nozzles. The following figures 

 would result : 



Lime-Sulphur 9.7 gals, at ITj^c per 



sal. $1.70 



Arsenate of lead, 16 lbs. at 10c 1.60 



Power outfit, 3 hrs., at $1 per hr 3.00 



Total $6.30 



Each application per acre thus costs 

 the grower either under or over this 

 amount, according to whether his trees 

 take under or over eight gallons per 

 tree, according to whether he has more 

 or less than forty trees to an acre, and 

 according to whether his equipment will 

 put on more or less than approximately 

 one hundred gallons an hour or one 

 thousand gallons a day. 



This is, of course, a rough estimate. 

 It is given only for the information of 

 those having limited or no experience in 

 spraying. 



White grubs do a great deal of damage 

 to strawberries. They are difficult to 

 handle when they once get into the soil. 

 It is wise to plant in soil that has not 

 been in sod very long. The grub re- 

 quires two years in the soil, and the sec- 

 ond year it does the damage. — W. J. 

 Kerr, Ottawa, Ont. 



