80 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



Ajyt'll 



to enter the opening bud and commence 

 eating before it is fully expanded, and 

 those very formidable enemies, the tent 

 caterpillar and the canker worm soon 

 follow. There is no period in the life of 

 those instects when they can be so easily 

 destroyed by arsenical poisons, as when 

 they first begin to feed. A weak mixture 

 of arsenic will then destroy them while a 

 much stronger mixture may fail to do so 

 when they have attained a larger growth. 

 It is evident, then, that apple trees 

 should be sprayed with Paris green, or 

 other forms of arsenic, when the buds 

 first begin to swell, certainly when the 

 leaves begin to unfold. As many kinds 

 of fungi commence to grow with the first 

 warm days of spring, Bordeaux mixture 

 can be profitably mixed with the arsenic- 

 al poison. 



A few years ago, from a mistaken idea 

 of the time when the codling-moth first 

 lays her eggs, orchardists, fearful that if 

 they waited until the apple-blofsttms fell, 

 it would be too late to destroy the larva, 

 sprayed their trees while in blossom and 

 bee-keepers complained that their bees 

 were poisoned, and prevailed upon our 

 Legislature to pass a law forbidding spray- 

 ing while trees are in blossom. Many 

 orchardists felt greatly aggrieved by this 

 law, asserting that they were forbidden 

 to sprav just when spraying would do the 

 most good, and they must sacrifice their 

 apple-crop upon their own land, for the 

 benefit of the bee-keeper, who had no 

 claim upon their orchard as a bee- 

 pasture. More recently, a careful ob- 

 servation of the habits of, the codling- 

 moth led to the discovery that she does 

 not deposit her eggs immediately after 

 the blossom falls, but several days later, 

 and that, instead of placing tlii'm in the 

 calyx or blossom end of the fruit, as had 

 always been supposed, she lays them 

 upon the side of the young apple, glueing 

 them to the rind, and that wben the 

 egg hatches the larva crawls over the 

 fruit in seaich of a place of concealment 

 which they generally find in the partially 

 closed calyx. This'seems to show that 

 thei-e is no occasion for haste in spraying 

 immediately after the blossoms fall, but 

 that any time before the calyx closes will 

 answer when the little cup may be filled 

 with the poisoned water ready to give the 

 worm an inhospitable welcome to its fii'st 

 meal. 



Still more recent investigations show 

 that it is not only not necessary to spray 

 for the Qodliiig-worm when tlie trees are 

 ill blossom, but that it is a positiv(> detri- 

 lufut to the fruit to spray at sucli a 



time. At the late meeting of the Western 

 New York Horticultural Society, Prof. L. 

 A. Beach, of the New York State Experi- 

 ment Station at Geneva, detailed some 

 experiments he had made in spraying 

 apple trees, when in bloom, with Paris 

 green. He experimented in two orchards 

 in Ontario County and two in Niagara 

 County. Had sprayed some trees in all 

 of the orchards and left others con- 

 tiguous without spraying. All the trees 

 were very full of blossoms. On the trees 

 sprayed but few apples set. a very large 

 proportion of the blossoms falling, appa- 

 rently before the fruit set in, wliile on 

 those not sprayed a very large crop of 

 fruit grew. To make the test still more 

 conclusive, he selected trees very full of 

 blossoms alike on both sides, and sprayed 

 one side of each tree, leaving the other 

 side unsprayed. The result was, on 

 those sides sprayed the fruit set very 

 sparsely, while on the opposite side, not 

 spraved, a heavy burden of fruit grew. 

 Prof." Beach came to the conclusion that 

 where you fairly hit an apple-blossom 

 with Paris green strong enough to kill 

 insects, you will pretty certainlv kill the 

 blossom. '^-he organs of reproduction 

 in fruit blossoms, when fully exposed, 

 are very tender and easily killed. A 

 slight frost or a long, cold rain will often 

 leave an orchard, covered with blossoms, 

 with little or no fruit. If these experi- 

 ments shall be confirmed we shall con- 

 fess that the Legislature "builded better 

 than it knew," that while protecting tlie 

 lives of the bees it prevented fruit- 

 growers from destroving thcMr fruit. 



The undersigned has an extra fine lot 

 of English Carrier and Belgian Homer 

 Pige(nis. -bred from best imported ^tock. 

 which he desires to exchange for pun- 

 Buff Plymouth Rocks, or will sell at very 

 reasonable price. John Nielsen, 1 



It. IC) Fairfield Ave.. Jamestown. N.Y. 



TVPKWUITEHS AN!) CAMEK.A.S. 



If any reader of Thk Hee-keei'EK is contem- 

 plating the purchase of a photographic outfit or 

 a writing machine, I should bo pleased to have him 

 correspond with me before placing an order for 

 either. 1 am in a position to offer new instruments 

 of the highest grade, direct from the manufac- 

 turers, at the lowest possible prices. Kespectfully, 



i^.fj- H. E. Hii.i., Ft. Fierce, Fla. 



