SPRAYING THE APPLE ORCHARD. 55 



side and wait till the wind shifts, or a calm day, to spray 

 the other side. 



It is evident that it is difficult to spray either the old tree 

 soaring skywards for thirty feet, valuable only in that it 

 furnishes a home to the friendly woodpecker, for it costs 

 more to pick the fruit from it than it is worth, or trees 

 scattered over a rough pasture, or following a stone wall 

 along the roadside, where a ditch or bank often makes it 

 impossible to reach them from the roadway. For suc- 

 cessful spraying, as well as for proper care in culture, etc., 

 the orchard should be in rows and the trees should be kept 

 headed in, so that the tops can be readily reached. The 

 day of the sky-scraper tree is passed. 



Is the Spray Dangerous? — The question is often asked 

 whether the spray on the apples is not dangerous, or 

 whether that on the grass beneath the trees will not poison 

 stock. Repeated experiments and analyses of apple par- 

 ings have shown that one would need to eat several pecks 

 of fruit at a sitting to secure sufficient poison for ill ef- 

 fects. Cattle and horses have been allowed to graze the 

 grass beneath sprayed trees without apparent effect. Of 

 course, the spray material should not be dumped out on the 

 grass in any quantity, or where poultry will get it, but the 

 ordinary drip from the trees is harmless. 



Cost of Spraying. — In the records of our experiments 

 we have shown the profit from spraying and have stated 

 the cost at about 12 or 13 cents a tree for two sprayings. 

 The chief cost in spraying is the labor and no definite fig- 

 ures are therefore possible for trees scattered over a pas- 

 ture or along roadways, etc. ; but where they are in or- 

 chards, the following figures give the actual cost from rec- 

 ords made by us for several seasons and corroborated l\v 

 hundreds of growers throughout the country. Indeed, 

 many are spraying with power sprayers for half this cost 

 per tree. 



