HORTICULTURE 



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BY IRRIGATION. 



NECESSITY AND VALUE OF SPRAYING. 



BY W. C. FITZSIMMONS. 



NO commercial orchardist in any part of the coun- 

 try can hope long to preserve his trees and fruit 

 free from the ravages of insects or disease with- 

 out good care and cultivation from the start. The term 

 " good care " is comprehensive, and embraces not 

 only proper pruning and fertilizing, as well as water- 

 ing where irrigation is required, but covers also the 

 feature of using such means and appliances as are 

 necessary to destroy or prevent diseases and insect 

 depredations. In many if not most parts of country, 

 the protection of orchards against fungous diseases 

 and other incidents to the presence of insects of vari- 

 ous kinds, is among the necessities which must be 

 reckoned with by him who contemplates planting an 

 orchard for business purposes in any part of the 

 United States, whether in the irrigated regions or 

 not. 



As a matter of fact, it is found that the better con- 

 ditions which may and generally do surround 

 orchards planted on irrigated land are conducive to 

 more healthy and prolific trees than if planted else- 

 where. But even on the best of soil, and supplied 

 with plenty of water and well cultivated, orchards 

 are still liable to attacks from a legion of insect 

 enemies which require vigilance to detect and 

 promptness to suppress on the part of the successful 

 orchardist. And it may as well be said here that he 

 who is not vigilant and prompt in the detection of 

 enemies to his trees and the administration of reme- 

 dies is not and cannot be a successful orchardist. 



VALUABLE REMEDIES. 



In previous numbers of THE AGE attention has 

 been called to this subject, and very full and com- 

 plete tables of prescriptions for sick trees have been 

 given. All fruit growers should study such tables 

 carefully and keep them close at hand for ready ref- 

 erence. In a general sense, the most valuable reme- 

 dies known to orchard therapeutics are Paris green, 

 the Bordeaux mixture, and the lime, sulphur and salt 

 compound. .Nearly all the ills that orchard trees are 

 subject to yield to a great extent at least to treatment 

 by one or other of these remedies. They hold prac- 

 tically about the same valuable relation to diseases 

 of fruit trees that quinine, morphine and iron hold 

 to the diseases and distempers of men. The fact, too, 

 that the scientific application of these poisonous 

 chemicals to growing crops is a necessity to their 

 proper growth and maturity, calls for men of more 

 than ordinary judgment and culture for their proper 

 application. Hence the commercial orchardist who 

 makes a success of his calling is almost always found 

 to be a person of superior intelligence and sound 

 judgment. 



And herein rests one of the most valuable and at- 

 tractive features of fruit culture, especially in the 

 irrigated regions. The business as there success- 

 fully carried on, attracts to its ranks the best talent 

 and energy of the district, and they who stand high- 

 est in fruit culture in any neighborhood are almost 

 sure to tower above their fellows in social education 

 and business standing also. Perhaps it is, therefore, 

 that insect pests and other woes that afflict the fruit 



234 



grower are not unmixed evils. If the business did 

 not require the constant attention, the unremitting 

 vigilance and activity which are the price of a fruit 

 crop, it is quite unlikely that so many superior men 

 would be found in that line of business to-day. To 

 diseases and insects, to drouth and flood, to fungus 

 growth and foot-rot, as well as to numerous other ills 

 that afflict both tree and fruit, we no doubt owe to a 

 great extent the splendid list of fruits to be seen 

 somewhere in the market nearly every day in the 

 year. These fruits have been produced by the men 

 who have fought their way to success through all the 

 difficulties that have beset them. 



To Protect Orange Trees from Frost. Our 

 friends in Florida, as well as in California and 

 Louisiana, may well profit by the suggestion made 

 some time since by the Standard Oil millionaire 

 orange grower, Col. H. M. Flagler, who is so largely 

 interested in various parts of Florida. 



In all the orange-growing States there is danger 

 from frost. We are told of course that many orchards 

 in all these States are " below the frost line," or are 

 located within the " frostless belt." But unfortun- 

 ately there are no frost lines that can be permanent- 

 ly traced, and the frostless "belts" are generally as 

 mythical as the "lines.'' It is probably within the 

 truth to say that 90 per cent, of all the orange groves 

 of the United States are located where frost forms at 

 some time or another. Many artificial devices to 

 ward off the effects of freezing weather have been 

 adopted, the most effective as well as the most ex- 

 pensive being the device of burning crude petroleum 

 delivered through small iron pipes throughout the 

 grove. This device was successfully operated last 

 season by Mr. H. B. Everest, of Riverside, Cal., 

 who, like Col. Flagler, is interested in the Standard 

 Oil company. Perhaps Col. Flagler's plan would, 

 however, be equally effective and less expensive. It 

 would certainly be less expensive in Florida and 

 Louisiana, where timber is plentiful and very cheap. 

 Mr. Flagler's method is to provide a large number of 

 posts, five or six feet long, cut from pine saplings 

 four or five inches in diameter, and thoroughly satur- 

 ate them with crude petroleum. On the approach of 

 a cold night set these posts along the rows of trees as 

 near together as required and light them at the top. 

 They will burn for hours, producing a considerable 

 amount of heat and a dense smoke which is liable to 

 settle over the grove, and thus ward off the worst 

 effects of the cold wave. It is not improbable that 

 Mr. Everest's system of pipes, though costly to begin 

 with, might prove the cheaper in the end, especially 

 when suitable timber for posts is scarce or where the 

 crude petroleum is not very cheap. If either of these 

 methods on further test shall prove wholly effective, 

 it would be the part of wisdom for growers in 

 exposed places to unite and through cooperative 

 effort establish these fruit-saving devices wher- 

 ever required. More than 2,000 carloads 

 of fine fruit were destroyed in California 

 alone last winter, and almost every year more 

 or less fruit is lost in all the orange-producing States 

 from the effects of cold weather. In view of past ex- 

 perience it were wise in citrus fruit-growers to be on 



