FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 47 



what we are spraying with? I am sure it will be old chaff to 

 some of you, but perhaps here, as in Delaware, some inexpe- 

 rienced ones pop up every year. The spraying- as we know it 

 is done with liquid; the liquid of course the main part is 

 water, which is simply a carrier for poisons, so that we may 

 convert that liquid containing the poisons into a mist, and 

 with that mist cover vines, shrubs and trees with poisons — 

 poison for insects and poison for fungus. The biting insects 

 we can kill with some form of arsenic; it is very easy to 

 handle in a way, and such are represented by the coddling 

 moth. But the insects that suck, we can no more reach with 

 arsenic than we can reach the mosquito with arsenic, and for 

 practically the same reason. The sucking insect puts his bill 

 into the bark of the tree and sucks the sap from it the same 

 as the mosquito puts his bill under our skin and sucks the 

 blood. Those insects must have something external to kill 

 them, and are represented by the rose beetle and by the San 

 Jose scale. We have a sovereign remedy, however, for fungi 

 in the bordeaux mixture, as we have got to make it of late 

 years, that is, four pounds of sulphate of copper, six pounds of 

 lime to fifty gallons of water. The arsenic we use has come 

 to be a standard of about one-half pound of Paris green or 

 its equivalent to fifty gallons of water or bordeaux. Now, 

 when shall we apply these substances? The first spraying in 

 Delaware comes, say two or three weeks before w^e expect 

 blossoming to begin; that is when the buds begin to swell, and 

 'that is of plain bordeaux. You have been told probably a 

 good many times, and advised to use sulphate of copper alone 

 in water, that is. two pounds to a gallon of water, but we don't 

 think best to do that. We think we can see the bordeaux 

 clearer on the trees, and it stays on there a good deal longer ; 

 in fact, we know if it is well put on, you will find it there in 

 the fall. Our second spraying is still plain bordeaux, and comes 

 after the buds have begun to open just so you can see the 

 color inside. This spraying should be just as carefully done 

 as the later sprayings. I think a great many full crops have 

 been lost by scab getting into the blossom or bud very early in 

 the season, so if we use bordeaux and spray carefully we pre- 

 vent the scab getting in there. The third spraying is just 



