SPRAYING APPARATUS. 155 



The Care of Spraying Machinery. 



The operations of spraying are frequently more or less 

 delayed by minor accidents or imperfect working of parts 

 of the machinery. The action of the insecticide mixtures 

 corrodes certain parts and the pumps require constant at- 

 tention to keep them in good working order. Unless their 

 construction is understood by either the workmen or the man 

 in charge, considerable delay and loss of time are occasioned 

 by sending the pumps away for repairs or awaiting the 

 services of experts called in to remedy the difficulty. Yet 

 most of the trouble may be easily and quickly remedied if 

 the men using the apparatus have a sufficient knowledge of 

 the different parts of the pump to take out those that work 

 imperfectly, repair and replace them. Most of the delays in 

 the field are caused by either a clogging of the strainer in 

 the tank, some obstruction in the valves or the wearing 

 of the packing of the piston in the cylinder. 



Before the spraying apparatus is sent into the field in 

 the spring, it should be thoroughly overhauled and tested. 

 While the spraying is in progress, each of the spraying 

 gangs should be furnished with a tool box containing 

 wrenches, tools, packing and other materials which are use- 

 ful in taking apart the pumps and making repairs. Mr. E. 

 C. Ware, who superintended the spraying teams in 1891, 

 gives the following information and directions in regard to 

 the care of pumps in the field : 



If a pump fails to throw a stream, it is well to put some 

 clean water in at the top, as it is* quite often the case that 

 the valves are made or lined with leather, which, in drying, 

 has become hard or warped out of shape. If the pump is 

 an old one and the valves are of leather, it may require new 

 valves before it can be made to work. If the pump still 

 fails to operate satisfactorily, examine the strainer to see 

 whether it has become clogged, as the trouble with the pump 

 can be quite often found at the bottom of the strainer. If the 

 pump has not been used for a day or two, the strainer may 

 have become corroded. Sediment from the material used for 

 spraying will sometimes dry on the meshes of the strainer so 

 as to prevent the passing of the liquid through the pump. 



