270 A YEAR IN AGRICULTURE 



new branches. This method is especially successful with old 

 peach trees. 



Spraying the orchard. Perhaps the next step in the re- 

 juvenation of the old orchard is to spray. Before the leaf 

 and fruit buds open in the spring, the trees should be sprayed 

 with a commercial lime-sulphur solution, diluted one gallon 

 to nine or ten of water. This spray is effective against San 

 Jose scale, apple scab, and several other fungous diseases 

 living over the winter on the limbs and twigs of the trees. 

 As soon as the apple blossoms fall, the next spraying should 

 be given. This consists of a fungicide and insecticide com- 

 bined, commercial lime-sulphur, one and one-half gallons di- 

 luted to 50 gallons with water, to which is added two pounds 

 of lead arsenate in solution. This spray is used to combat 

 fruit scab, blotch, leaf rusts and other diseases, as well as the 

 codling moth and other chewing insects such as the canker 

 worm, tent caterpillar, curculios, etc. The lead arsenate is 

 the insecticide, and the lime-sulphur the fungicide. If this 

 spraying is done thoroughly, it may not be necessary to spray 

 again that season in order to secure a good crop of fruit. 

 It is often advisable, however, to repeat the second spraying 

 in three or four weeks, and again about the last of July to 

 combat the second brood of codling moth. An ordinary fifty- 

 gallon barrel spray pump for the farm home orchard will 

 do the work well. 



Cultivating and fertilizing the orchard. If the soil in the 

 old orchard is poor and has not been cultivated for many 

 years, a top-dressing of stable manure and lime worked into 

 the soil will help to renew it. Many old orchards have been 



