87 



Fuel, oil and grease 4s. per day. 



Supervision. — Proportion of foreman's 

 time, 6s. per day. 



Interest on Capital.— 6 per cent, on 

 £900 equals £54; spread over 16 working 

 days, £3 7s. ; total cost per day, £49. 



Cost per acre, at 10 acres per day, 

 £4 12s. 



Fruit Spraying on a Smaller Scale with 

 Motor Power. 



By C. H. Hooper. 



In one plum plantation at Pershore the 

 following outfit was at work this spring : 



W. Weeks and Son's. Ltd. 

 Adjustment Nozzle. 



Outside 



A Weeks' (of Maidstone) spray pump 

 fitted with Amanco engine of 3 to 4 horse- 



Vermorel Kn 



Sprayer. 



power, taking 2 men to look after engine 

 and get limewash ready; 4 men with 



four lances. The acreage sprayed de- 

 pends on the iron piping being laid to the 

 best advantage. Other things being 

 favourable, this equipment could lime- 

 spray about 2i acres per day of mature 

 plum trees (planted about 16ift. apart 

 for Pershore egg plums, 18ft. for Pro- 

 lifics, 21ft. for Monarchs). 



On Mr. E. P. Whiteley's fruit farm at 

 Pershore a Drake and Fletcher li-horse- 

 power engine, drawn by a horse, with 4 

 lances, with 100 yards l|in. steel piping, 

 a three-way tap every 30 yards; 2 90ft. 

 fin. rubber hose laterals running at right 

 angles to the steel piping, each having 2 

 60ft. rubber pipes terminated by a lance, 

 making 4 lances in all. By this disposal 

 it was estimated 5 to 6 acres could be 

 sprayed, using nicotine and soft soap or 

 similar wash with the engine in one 

 position. 



A Maidstone grower told me that with 

 13 men employed, 6 nozzles in use on 20- 

 year-old apple trees, 500 gallons of wash 

 were used per acre and 8 acres sprayed 

 in a day. 



Limewash Spraying Fruit Trees. 

 Lime-spraying is so much believed in 

 at Pershore that Mr. P. D. Poole, of Per- 

 shore, contracted to lime-spray orchards 

 at 8d. to 9d. per tree ; my brother had 10 

 acres of mature plums and apples some- 

 what closely planted thus sprayed at a 

 cost of £100. The aim is to get the lime 

 on as hot as possible, as thick as possible 

 (ideal, the thickness of eggshell) and as 

 late as possible, even to the opening of 

 the flowers in the case of apples. Motor 

 spray pumps put on the lime-wash at a 

 pressure of about 90lbs. per square inch 

 (in ordinary spraying 120lbs. per square 

 inch is preferred) : if a very high pressure 

 is used with lime-wash the wash is wasted. 

 The bore of the nozzle used is nearly |in. 

 At the present time hand-picked Buxton 

 lime, which is the best lime for the pur- 

 pose, costs 62s. 3d. per ton at Pershore 

 Station. An acre of fully-grown fruit trees 

 requires nearly a ton an acre of lime to 

 spray it thoroughly. After using lime all 

 the machinery and pipes should be 

 cleaned as much as possible, or little bits 

 of lime stop up the nozzles at the next 

 spraying. 



