SELF-BOILING WASHES. 



Perhaps the main objection to the use of the Hme-sulfur wash is 

 the necessity of boiUng it, involving expense for a large iron kettle 

 where steam is not available, and the time required. To avoid this, 

 several self-boiling washes have been tested in different places. In 

 all these tests some chemical has been added which would produce 

 heat in the wash, to continue that produced by the slaking of the 

 lime, sufficiently long to bring the lime and sulfur into combination 

 without the use of a fire. 



The results obtained in this way have been very variable. Some- 

 times they have been nearly or quite as good as those obtained by 

 the use of a fire while sometimes they have been very unsatisfactory. 

 The cost of the chemical added should of course be considered in 

 tests of this kind, as well as the time required by this method as 

 compared with that by the other. 



In the spring of 1906 tests of sodic sulfid, caustic soda and sal 

 soda as self-boilers were made at the Hatch Experiment Station. 

 The formula used with the sodic sulfid was lime twenty lbs., sulfur ten 

 lbs., sodic sulfid ten lbs., water forty gals. The sodic sulfid cost $3.20 

 per barrel of wash, the lime fourteen cents, and the sulfur twenty- 

 eight cents, making the cost of the materials $3.62 per barrel of 

 wash. The results obtained were only fair, many living scales being 

 present on the trees at the first examination after treatment and 

 becoming extremely abundant later. 



The caustic soda treatment was made by taking lime twenty lbs., 

 sulfur fourteen lbs., caustic soda five lbs., water forty gals. The 

 caustic soda cost fifteen cents per pound, making the total cost for 

 materials $1.28 per barrel of wash. The results were about like 

 those with the sodic sulfid. 



The same formula sub.stituting sal soda for caustic soda cost 

 eighty-seven cents per barrel for the materials and gave better results 

 than either of the others though not as good as those obtained from 

 the boiled lime-sulfur wash which cost about fifty cents per barrel for 

 the materials. The time taken by the self boiling washes averaged 

 about a half an hour per barrel, so that the amount of time actually 

 saved by this method was less than had been anticipated. 



These results are not as good as some which have been reported 

 but represent a fair average of them as given from all parts of the 



