140 ■ MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



are very few of us at the present time who can afford to make it, 

 because as a commercial product it is sold so cheap. It is also a 

 very difficult preparation to make. 



Another insecticide for destroying the scale insect is soluble oil. 

 There are several brands in the market, all of which are good. In 

 my right hand I show you the oil before mixing with water. In 

 my left hand I show you the oil after mixing with water, making 

 a perfectl}^ white emulsion. If you do not get that white emul- 

 sion, or get free oil on top of your solution, send it back to the 

 dealer or manufacturer and demand that he replace it. For the 

 scale insect, I find that it is easier, in my own experience, to 

 destroy them with the oil than with the lime and sulphur, but 

 without doubt the lime and sulphur is a better fungicide. If your 

 fruit trees are in blossom never use lime and sulphur because it is 

 most injurious to the fruit. My recommendations would be, on 

 the first manifestation of scale, spray with oil until you get the 

 scale under control. After you have got it pretty well under con- 

 trol you can use lime and sulphur a part of the time, possibly every 

 other year. If you do not have the scale, I should use the lime and 

 sulphur for the dormant spray. These two insecticides should be 

 used when the trees are dormant, the oil at the rate of one gallon 

 to twelve or fifteen gallons of water, the lime and sulphur at the 

 rate of one gallon to nine or twelve gallons of water. These mate- 

 rials should never be used after the buds have opened. If you wish 

 to use a fungicide on the foliage or fruit, you must use it very care- 

 fully, especially the commercial lime and sulphur. It should be 

 used at the rate of one gallon to fifty or seventy-five gallons of 

 water. Much injury has been caused the past year from the use 

 of lime and sulphur, but I think it is due partly to spraying the 

 foliage or fruit during the middle of the day when the sun is hot. 

 If the weaker solution is used, I should recommend spraying in the 

 early morning or late afternoon. 



For the leaf-eating insects we use some form of arsenic, prefer- 

 ably arsenate of lead. The leaf -eating insects are very easily con- 

 trolled with arsenate of lead ; and if you want to use a fungicide, 

 you can use the arsenate of lead with Bordeaux mixture, or lime 

 and sulphur. In my own case I much prefer to have the tops of 

 my trees sufficiently thinned out so as to give a free circulation of 



