APPLE GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. < < 



Thoroughness in spraying implies good spraying machinery and 

 equipment. The day of the barrel pump is practically over as far as 

 the commercial orehardist is Concerned, and tin- man who owns five 

 acres of apples needs a power sprayer. For a smaller acreage the 

 barrel or tank pumps may still be used, but only by exercising the 

 greatest of rare can they be made to do the work as thoroughly and as 

 effectively as the power outfit. Our modern power sprayers have 

 revolutionized the spraying business and have made it possible to 

 handle a much greater acreage during the period when spraying can 

 be most effectively done, and if any criticism is to be made of these 

 machines it would be that the high degree of efficiency which they 

 possess is sometimes depended upon too much and the men, trusting to 

 the machine to do it all, become careless. While it is true that with 

 tlie hiirh pressure which it is possible to attain trees may be very 

 quickly sprayed, there is a tendency to hurry too much and the work 

 is slighted. 



Most of our power sprayers will maintain a pressure of two hun- 

 dred pounds with ease, while with the old fashioned barrel pump or 

 the later tank pump eighty to one hundred pounds was considered 

 good. Thorough work may be done with this lower pressure, but the 

 time required and the care necessary are greatly increased. It is, 

 however, advantageous to have the higher pressure in the case of con- 

 trol work for most of the insects of the apple. 



There are many good types of spraying machines on the market and 

 individual likes will determine which is to be purchased. A machine 

 should b- equipped with two long lines of hose, at least fifty feet each, 

 and rods at least eight feet in length. The long hose will enable one 

 t around trees handily and the long rods will greatly facilitate the 

 work of spraying. Of utmost importance in the equipment are good 

 nozzles \n machine can be expected to do the best work without them. 



THE PIPING SYSTEM FOR SPRAYING. 



The gn-at Miccess of the piping system used by a few California 

 orchard u rowers indicates the possibility of this latest method of dis- 

 tributing and applying the sprays to our trees coming into general 

 use. Under this system the portable tank with attached pump and 

 gasoline engine is done away with and instead there is installed, at a 

 convenient place in the orchard, stationary mixing tanks for the spray 

 material and a system of pumps which forces the spray under pressure 

 throu.irh leads of half inch galvanized iron pipes buried at a convenient 

 depth and convenient intervals throughout the orchard. Standpipes 

 for the attachment of the hose are connected to the underground 

 tern at such distances apart as are necessary. The initial cost of such a 

 system is, of course, considerable, and not every orchardist can afford 

 its installation. The great saving in time and labor during the work 

 of spraying, the ability t spray an orchard when the ground is wet, 

 and the possibility of so much more effective work, make the system 

 one to be recommended. 



Instead of the pipes beinir placed permanently below ground as in 

 the Hay ward Reed system. n<ed in his pear orchard near Sacramento, 

 a modification of this system may he used. At Watsonville the latter 

 may he .-en in operation and consists of suitable lengths of pipe which 

 at the time of sprayinir an- laid on the surface of the ground between 



