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Professor Whetzell. Xo, it isn't necessary, any more than 

 I would advocate spraying. Now, so far as injury to the fruit 

 is concerned, there is no evidence that spraying or dusting when 

 the trees are in blossom will injure the set of fruit. No evi- 

 dence, no experimental evidence, as far as I know. The bee 

 men are very certain it kills the bees if you spray or dust when 

 the trees are in blossom. We have dusted trees experimentally 

 in blossom, and we have sprayed trees experimentally in blos- 

 som. There is, as far as I know, no experimental evidence to 

 show that spraying or dusting kills bees. I once went over the 

 matter with a professor who made a very careful search for 

 evidence on that point, and he said there was none. I do not 

 say it doesn't kill bees. I do not know. But I say, as far as 

 the experimental evidence goes, there is absolutely none to 

 show it injures the bees and none to show it injures the set 

 of fruit. 



A Member. That is the reason I asked that question. 

 Formerly I used to make more than S1,000 on bees. Last year 

 I lost $100. A man there locally will spray his trees many 

 times. He knows better. There is no law against him. He 

 sprays with a weak solution, and he claims it doesn't kill the 

 bees, but the whole hive will dwindle down when the poison 

 has been used in that way. 



Professor Whetzell. As far as I know, there is no carefully 

 carried out experiment on that subject to prove it, one way or 

 the other, but the point is, it isn't necessary to spray when the 

 trees are in blossom. There is no particular point in doing it. 

 There may be once in a good many years such weather con- 

 ditions where it would be profitable to catch the trees when 

 they are in blossom. In other words, the trees usually blossom 

 during a rainless period. At least, the blossoms open when the 

 sun shines. He should have it ahead of the rain. If a man 

 sprays his trees properly with respect to weather, there is prac- 

 tically never any occasion to spray when they are in blossom; 

 therefore, he and the bee man can live happily without arguing 

 the question. They don't need to even discuss the question, 

 because they don't have to spray when they are in blossom. 



Chairman Jenks. The question is asked if you know of sat- 

 isfactory means of controlling pear psylla. 



