186 FKUIT-GROWING 



harvested. (I can just imagine some of the 

 short-sighted "old timers" saying, "What's 

 the use of spraying after the crop is off?") 

 It is, again, a case of protecting the next year's 

 crop — or rather a question of making that crop 

 possible. For scale insects and incidental fun- 

 gous spores, a winter spray of commercial lime 

 sulphur is used at a strength of one to five. 

 Some of my readers may wonder why I advise 

 so strong a solution when they have been taught 

 that a strength of one to nine will do the work. 

 Without going into a detailed discussion here, 

 I will simply say that I was probably among 

 the first to use lime sulphur solutions in scale 

 control work. After many years' experience 

 I have come to the conclusion that the strengths 

 formerly advised are too weak. I would much 

 prefer to apply a spray at the one to five dilu- 

 tion every third year than to spray with one to 

 nine every year. I feel sure that such a program 

 would render an orchard perfectly free from 

 scale insects at a much smaller cost of time and 

 materials than would the annual program. 



Harvesting plums and cherries and market- 

 ing them, present many problems than can only 

 be touched on here. Both are perishable fruits 

 that must be used quickly in most cases. The 

 American varieties are particularly short- 

 lived, suitable only for home use or for near-by 

 markets. Some of the Japs, such as Burbank 



