AIMM.K <;ROWI\<; IN ( ' Al .1 K< >KN I A. 75 



CHAPTER XIII. 



SPRAYING THE APPLE. 



\Yhether it is generally believed or not, it is nevertheless true that 

 MI exceedingly heavy loss in apples cadi season could be largely pre- 

 vented by proper spraying, and \\hile there are many orehardUts who 

 spray intelligent ly and who <M results, there are others who spray 

 with little or no knowledge of the diseases or insect pests of their trees, 

 and little mr.re of the sprays that they are using. The first thing that 

 the apple grower should do, if he would make the greatest success of 

 his business, is to familiarize himself with these pests and diseases. 

 It may seem to him that this is the work of an expert and he should 

 not be expected to know anything about it. There is no question but 

 that the expert's advice and help should be solicited, but after all every 

 one must know his own orchard, and with the help of such expert 

 advice as he may be able to get, and through reading, it should be pos- 

 sible to learn everything that need be known about the insects and 

 diseases, so that intelligent methods may be used for their control. 



There are too many apple growers spraying for codling moth, not 

 even knowing where the eggs of the adult insect are laid or what they 

 look like ; there is too much spraying for the control of the various 

 species of plant lice without a thorough knowledge of their life habits ; 

 and the same thing holds true in relation to apple scab, mildew and 

 other affections of the orchard. To illustrate, I have talked with 

 seemingly intelligent growers who thought that the arsenate of lead 

 applied for the control of codling moth would kill the eggs. Such 

 ignorance as this is, of course, not met with as a rule among our fruit 

 u rowers, for it may be said to their great credit that there are no more 

 intelligent people to be found in any other line of work; but one can 

 Mot conceive of such lack of knowledge in regard to a pest upon which 

 volumes have been written and with which every field expert in an apple 

 section is familiar. 



The writer is not a believer in promiscuous hit or miss spraying, done 

 usually because some one else is doing likewise, or because some one said 

 that the trees needed treatment, without any knowledge of what was 

 on them The time to spray an apple orchard is when there is some- 

 tin IILT on the trees that can be controlled by the spray. It is all very 

 well to talk about preventive measures, but spraying an orchard for 

 woolly aphis with a nicotine solution, or with some other contact spray, 

 will do no good for the control of this pest, unless it is actually present. 

 There can be no preventive effect in this case and yet we often hear 

 people say: "Well. I had no pests on these trees but just sprayed to 

 pn-vent them from coming." Again, there could be no possible value 

 of an arsenical spray for codling moth unless the pest was actually 

 present in the orchard. There are isolated orchards of a considerable 

 age where this pest has never occurred, and it would be the merest 

 folly to attempt to prevent its coming by any spraying methods. There 

 are also young orchards in sections where codling moth is present that 

 may not be troubled for a few years, and there can be nothing accom- 

 plished in spraying them until the moth arrives. It is always a good 



