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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



diseases. This operation has developed 

 within memory of the present generation, 

 yet I doubt if the full significance of the 

 rapidity with which spraying has come 

 to be a universal practice, and an abso- 

 lutely essential one, occurs to very many 

 minds. 



What is probably the first reference to 

 the spraying of an apple orchard made 

 in a horticultural meeting is recorded 

 in the proceedings of the Western New 

 York Horticultural Society for 1879. The 

 account refers to a fruit grower in West- 

 ern New York having been troubled the 

 season before with canker worms. The 

 report reads: "He procured a force pump 

 and sprinkled the trees with water con- 

 taining paris green. This not only en- 

 tirely rid them of the canker worms, but 

 to his surprise those apples which grew 

 in that part of his orchard (the part 

 that was 'sprinkled') were entirely free 

 from codling moth worms. * * * " 

 The one who gave this account, writing 

 later of his experience in presenting the 

 facts before the horticultural society 

 meeting, says: "j * * * shall never 

 forget this (the presentation of the mat- 

 ter) because of the way in which I was 

 jumped upon as a crank."* 



Prom this beginning the practice of 

 spraying fruit trees for insects, especially 

 codling moth, began to receive some slight 

 attention from experimenters. 



Slightly earlier recommendations than 

 those of 1879 above mentioned were ap- 

 parently made by the entomologist of 

 the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, but the New York State Experiment 

 Station was the first station to publish 

 a report on the use of poisons (paris 

 green in this case) for the control of the 

 codling moth. This occurred in the An- 

 nual Report for 1885 of the station men- 

 tioned above. 



Spraying to control fungus diseases has 

 developed apace with the control of in- 

 sect pests, though in this country it did 

 not receive serious attention until some 

 time after spraying for insects had be- 

 come more or less common. 



Spraying for fungus diseases may be 



* Spraying of Plants by E. G. Lodeman, p. 63. 



said to have begun with the accidental 

 discovery in 1882 of the preparation which 

 later came to be known as Bordeaux 

 mixture. This occurred in connection 

 with the control of grape diseases in a 

 vineyard in France. 



It was apparently not till 1885 that 

 Bordeaux mixture was used for the con- 

 trol of other diseases than those of grapes. 

 It was about this time, or perhaps in 

 1884, that the control of diseases by liquid 

 sprays first began to receive attention in 

 this country. It was in the same year 

 (1885) that the first formula for making 

 Bordeaux was published in this country. 

 This appeared in a report from the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. In this 

 same report appeared what is probably the 

 first published suggestion that apple scab 

 might possibly be controlled or at least 

 checked by the application of some fun- 

 gicide. 



The formula for making Bordeaux mix- 

 ture was widely copied by the agricul- 

 tural press and in other publications, 

 though spraying did not appear to "take" 

 with anything like the favor that might 

 naturally be supposed in view of its prom- 

 ising possibilities. The "experimental 

 age" in American agriculture had not then 

 arrived! The annual report of the then 

 Section of Vegetable Pathology of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture 

 for 18S7 appears to contain the first def- 

 inite recommendation for the control of 

 apple scab by the use of Bordeaux mix- 

 ture. It was this same year, I believe, 

 that Congress authorized federal aid in 

 the establishment of an agricultural ex- 

 periment station in each state in the 

 Union. Spraying for the control of in- 

 sects and fungus diseases at once became 

 a subject of much experimentation at 

 many of these stations which were located 

 in important fruit producing states. 



The rest of the story about spraying 

 is quickly told. There was much to learn 

 about this operation, however, and its 

 acceptance as an essential factor in fruit 

 growing was very gradual. The decade 

 from 1890 to 1900 may be referred to as 

 the "test period" of the operation and the 

 period during which the fact of spraying 

 as an important orchard practice was be- 



