FORMULAS FOR SPRAYING MIXTURES 



right away, run a wire up or down the hole and mash them. 

 There will be from one to six in each infected tree. For many 

 trees, equip yourself with a machine oiler, and inject carbon- 

 bisulfide solution into the holes, then close them with grafting- 

 wax or soft clay. 



To prevent borers from entering any kind of trees, apply 

 to the trunks, about the middle of June, the Whale Oil Soap 

 solution, No. 18, or Lime-Sulfur Solution, No. 15. Painting 

 the lower eighteen inches of trunks with pure white lead and 

 raw linseed oil will help, too. Apple borers, however, some- 

 times enter three or four feet from the ground, but these worms 

 never get very big. Salt and ashes, or tobacco dust, in a layer 

 a couple of inches deep about the base of the tree, will kill the 

 worms that drop off and try to reach the trunk. 



Mice girdle trees by gnawing the bark off under the snow 

 (and sometimes during summer when grass grows or lies 

 close to the trunk), particularly when there is a crust that stays 

 on well into late winter. To prevent this damage, be sure to 

 draw all weeds or mulch of any kind back at least a foot from 

 the tree in August or September, and never allow any mulch 

 or grass closer than six inches to the trunk. The earth in this 

 open space should be heaped from three inches to a foot high 

 about the tree. Mice will not cross this open space. Tramp- 

 ing the snow about each tree before the mice begin working 

 also is a good plan. 



Rabbits girdle trees above the snow, and usually do it late 

 in the spring, after the snow has been on the ground a long 

 time. Painting trunks with pure white lead and raw linseed 

 oil, as for borers, helps to prevent both mice and rabbits from 

 chewing the bark. Perfect protection is given by wooden 

 veneers on the market, made especially for wrapping trunks 

 of small trees. They cost about 75 cents a hundred. Strips 

 of tar paper, of wire screen or of wire cloth, cut five inches wide 

 and two feet long, then wrapped around a broom handle, so as 

 to make long, open-sided tubes that will spring around the trunk 

 are cheaper and very practical for this purpose. 



The Lime-Sulfur solution many times will turn rabbits 

 away, and a mixture of blood and ashes will do this nearly 

 every time. By all means hunt down the rabbits. The boys 

 can set traps that will clean them out pretty well in one winter, 

 and you can form the habit of having a gun with you as you 

 work among your trees. You will be able to send many a 

 bunny to the Happy Hunting Grounds with it, and besides, 

 you will have lots of chances to shoot hawks, foxes and other 

 pests. Bridge-graft trees that have been girdled or partly 

 girdled. This operation can be done for twenty-five cents a 

 tree, and any good orchard tree in normal condition is worth 

 from $5 to $100. Cut whips of last year's growth and bevel 

 the ends so they will lie flat against the bark when the middle 

 is bowed out a little. Then slit the bark above and below the 

 wound, as is done in budding, and slip these beveled ends 

 in against the inner layer of bark. Cover this joint, and 

 whole wound if possible, with grafting-wax. That is all there 



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