46 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



years paint or tar wounds. Summer pruning is advisable 

 when the trees are not bearing heavily. 



Spraying. 



There is no orchard practice more important and per- 

 haps none less thoroughly understood than spraying. Some 

 people thing it a cure for all troubles and spray without care- 

 ful consideration of what is to be accomplished. As you all 

 know, we spray to kill insects and fungi — old orchard trees 

 generally have both. In my own case the extermination or 

 control of the San Jose scale was my great problem in this 

 line. The old trees were so thoroughly infested with this 

 pest before they came under my supervision that in many 

 cases the ends of the branches were killed back completely 

 for several feet and I could scrape oft in masses these incrus- 

 tations with a knife. In many cases the life of the tree had 

 been so sapped out that it seemed almost hopeless to save 

 the trees. In such cases 1 have used the soluble oils and lime 

 and sulphur solutions. In severe cases of scale infestation 

 I would advise the soluble oils in preference to lime and sul- 

 phur, as I think it a little more effectual in killing the scale. 

 Lime and sulphur is good to use for a slight infestation. 



A combination that has worked very well is to spray 

 with oil late in the fall, after the leaves have fallen, at the 

 rate of one to fifteen or one to twelve. Then in the spring 

 just before the buds unfold spray with lime and sulphur solu- 

 tion. Thoroughness in application will control these pests 

 effectually. Even were there no scale I would give old or- 

 chard trees, occasionally! say every two or three years, a good 

 spraying of lime and sulphur in the dormant season. 



Bordeaux mixture is fine for foliage in that it controls 

 ordinary fungous troubles ; but it rusts the fruit, especially 

 Baldwins, Greenings and Ben Davis. I believe in lime and 

 sulphur as the coming summer spray. 



I think up to very recently most of us have been using 

 Bordeaux mixture, but my experience with it has been that 



