TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 89 



the bark off the tree, and experiment with the spraying treat- 

 ment until you find out how to handle it right. 



Mr. Drew: I would like to get your opinion as to 

 whether it is safe for all fruit growers to spray with crude 

 oil. 



Mr. Repp : I do not advise anybody to do it until he 

 learns to use it. We had to find out for ourselves, and that 

 is what everybody else has to do. We experimented. We 

 took some trees to begin with, on the roadside, and then we 

 tried it on some trees that belonged to our neighbor. We 

 asked him if he cared if we sprayed those trees. We experi- 

 mented on them, and in that way we learned how to use it. 

 That is the way we began with crude oil. We did not go 

 through our best orchard and spray with it until we were 

 satisfied what it would do and what we could do with it. 



Mr. Drew : Would you spray with the oil now or later ? 



Mr. Repp: My rule is to spray after the sap begins to 

 start. That is usually about the first of March with us. Then 

 keep on spraying as long as the buds have not opened. 



Mr. Ives: Did you injure any of those wild trees? You 

 spoke about experimenting with some trees that stood along 

 the road. Did you injure any of those? 



Mr. Repp: No sir. The first tree we ever killed was 

 the first one that we ever sprayed. My father discovered that 

 it was covered with scale, and so he went out and sprayed it, 

 and then I came home afterwards and found out about it and 

 went out and sprayed it again, and that tree died. 



A Member : I would like to ask what is the matter with 

 Scalecide. 



Mr. Repp: I have never used any Scalecide. I have 

 used lime and sulphur. I tried that when the farm journals 

 first commenced to recommend it. That was back six or 

 eight years ago, — and we almost lost our orchard. We quit 

 using it and went back to crude oil. 



A Member : You think there is absolutely no danger 

 in using the ordinary commercial soluble oil? 



