STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. yc 



MODERN METHODS OF SPRAYING. 



A. H. KiRKLAXD, M. S., Assistant Entomologist to the Gypsy 

 Moth Committee, Maiden. ]\Iass. 



In the labor-saving devices and methods now adopted in every 

 branch of human industry, we find ample evidence to show that 

 many of the "luxuries" of one generation easily become the 

 "necessities" of the next. The telephone and typewriter in the 

 office find parallels in the mower, and horse-fork on the farm, 

 each having passed through the gradual process of trial, criti- 

 cism and modification until its present place in its proper sphere 

 has been reached. In testing modern discoveries, both business 

 man and farmer have practiced the old gospel of "prove all 

 things ; hold fast that which is good," and out of this testing 

 process have come devices and methods that annihilate space, 

 lengthen life through time saved and often make one day's 

 labors more prodvictive than those of a week, a generation ago. 

 Few in this audience will have difficulty in recalling the time 

 when a spraying pump was a rare luxury and spraying itself as 

 a means of controlling insect damage was practiced by few, crit- 

 icised by many, and unknown to the majority of our agricul- 

 turists : to-day it has become an essential factor in the produc- 

 tion of high-grade fruit, a kind of "plant life insurance," as 

 Hale aptly puts it. In fact, so necessary is this work that we 

 accept it as a part of the regular routine of fruit growing and 

 devote no small part of our attention to studying the most efifect- 

 ive and economical methods for carrying on the combat with 

 our insect foes. 



In discussing the topic assigned by your secretary, we will 

 consider the principal insecticides, the methods best adapted for 

 their economical use and the treatment indicated for the more 

 common fruit and shade tree insects. Because of the limitations 

 of my own study and experience, I shall l)e obliged to confine 

 myself quite closely to the entomological side of the question, 

 leaving the treatment of fungous diseases to the botanist or 

 mycologist. Even then the field is ample in extent and fertile in 

 opportunity : by far too large a part is yet unexplored. 



