The Canadian Horticulturi^ 



Vol. XXXVII 



MAY, 1914 



No. 



The New Soluble Sulphur Spray 



LEADING orchardists in Canada are 

 interested in the new spray mix- 

 ture Soluble-Sulphur. In last issue 

 of The Canadian Horticulturist appeared 

 an article by Prof. L. Caesar, Provincial 

 Entomolog^ist, Guelph, Ont., advising its 

 use this year only in an experimental 

 way. In the same issue Mr. J. G. Mit- 

 chell, of Clarksburg, Ont., the well- 

 known fruit grower and manager of the 

 Georgian Bay Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion, who used it in his orchard last year, 

 advocated its use strongly. 



Writing in "Better Fruit," F. A. Fra- 

 zier, of Portland, Oregon, an authority 

 on apple culture, says regarding it : 



Soluble Sulphur is a compound made 

 by melting under high degree of heat in 

 specially designed furnaces, of sulphur 

 and soda (not caustic soda), resulting in 

 a soluble powder fifty-seven to sixty per 

 cent sulphur. All sulphur in solution is 

 caustic in a certain sense. The sulphur 

 is simply more active in the solvent con- 

 dition. The caustic property of soluble 

 sulphur is due only to the sulphur in solu- 

 tion and not to the solvent agent. Much 

 loose talk has been indulged in pertaining 

 to things caustic. No properly made 

 sulphur spray ever injured a tree. Some- 

 times the fruit or foliage has been burn- 

 ed, but in most cases such burning is be- 

 cause of previous fungus infection and 

 injury admitting the spray to the wounds 

 caused, or a devitalized condition of the 

 tree where it does not have normal power 

 of resistance. Soluble Sulphur is some 

 times spoken of as being more caustic 

 than lime-sulphur. What is really meant 

 is that there is a greater spray value to 

 a given quantity. 



All contact sprays in general use of 

 any value have the caustic or burning 

 quality. The virtue of crude oil, as a 

 scale spray, over the lime-sulphur is be- 

 cause of its greater burning properties. 

 That is why crude oil can not be safely 

 used on tender trees or foliage which to- 

 gether with its gumming and pore-filling 

 characteristics has rendered it unsafe as 

 a tree spray for continued use. Lime- 

 sulphur Solution re-acts very rapidly in 

 presence of the atmosphere (returns to 

 its solids), thus withdrawing from action 

 a large portion of sulphur. 



A solution of soluble sulphur does not 

 re-act in the same way. The tendency is 

 to spread and penetrate until evaporation 



of water leaves the finely divided sulphur 

 thoroughly spread over the surface and 

 effectually carried into the scale crusts. 

 Thus a given quantity of Soluble Sul- 

 phur spray will go farther in effective 

 work than the same quantity in the old 

 time lime-sulphur way. 



In soluble sulphur the perfect spread 

 ing quality prevents the concentration of 

 spray in drops, so when used in proper 

 proportions it does no harm to the most 

 tender plants. Soluble Sulphur is, there- 

 fore, not only a superior scale spray, but 

 a very effective and economical scab 

 spray. There is also a valuable feature 

 in that the trees assimilate very readily 

 the sulphur in this form, thereby produc- 

 ing a greater vigor and extending to a 

 better coloring of fruit. Soluble sulphur 

 can be safely applied at winter strength 

 when the fruit leaves of apple trees are 

 the size of a squirrel's ear. This com- 

 bines the winter strength spray with the 

 first scab spray and at this time also the 

 aphis are more susceptible to control. 



Sulphur, even the old time home-boiled 

 and later the concentrated solutions, has 

 been an element of no small value to the 

 western orchards through the assimila- 



tion by the trees. The orchardists of the 

 east know this truth better because of the 

 comparisons which they have observed 

 between sulphur orchards and those 

 other-wise sprayed or unsprayed. If 

 there is one factor above another to which 

 the success of the western orchards can 

 be attributed, it is the thirty-odd years' 

 use of the sulphur sprays. In the last 

 six or seven years the same thing has 

 been the greatest single factor which is 

 bringing eastern orchards up to the stan- 

 dard of the much and justly famed west 

 ern orchards. Should the western orr 

 chardist ever forget what he owes to the 

 sulphur spravs, just that .soon he stands 

 aside while the east passes him on the 

 way to market with the high-grade fruit. 

 The economy of soluble sulphur is ajj- 

 parent, one hundred pounds being equal 

 in effective value to fifty-seven gallons of 

 thirty-three degrees lime-sulphur solur 

 tion. As to the efficiency, results count 

 for more than far-fetched theories. Hav- 

 ing been under the closest investigation 

 for three years, we find it used exclusively 

 on many orchards of two or three hun- 

 dred acres, the equivalent of fifteen thou- 

 sand barrels of solution being used out 







msmi^.-: 



■"SBMsailHtMiSS 



Goldan Ruttats in Bloom : Orchard of W. H. Gibion, Newcastle, Ont. 



Theee Rusfceta were fifteen years planted and averaged four barrels to a tree. This variety is in 

 great demand on the English market and ehoiild be more eiteneJTely grown where the soil is 



suitable. 

 121 



