CHAPTER VL 



THE ACTION OF INSECTICIDES AND FUNGICIDES. 



SPRAYING has become a common practice with compar- 

 atively few cultivators. The majority still waver when it 

 comes to doing the work, hoping that they may gather good 

 crops even if the operation is not performed. Very few have 

 doubts of its value, but for one reason or another, at the 

 last moment nothing is done. Undoubtedly much of this 

 hesitation is caused by the uncertainty whether as good 

 results may be obtained by the novice as are obtained by those 

 who have had experience in the work. I know of a farmer 

 who owns a young bearing orchard, which almost every spring 

 has promised an abundant harvest ; but when fall came and the 

 time for harvesting the crop drew near, the apples which still 

 hung on the trees were so full of worms and so distorted by 

 fungi that the profits derived from their sale were indeed 

 small. The man was so impressed by the good results of 

 spraying as practiced by one of his neighbors who grows the 

 same varieties of apples, that in 1894 he finally made prepara- 

 tion to spray in earnest. He was advised as to the best 

 methods of doing the work, and the proper materials were 

 applied, yet at first he could not overcome the fear that his 

 trees would not be just as thoroughly protected as others had 

 been, and that in spite of the application the apples would 

 turn out as they did in the past. But the fruit was fair, and 

 his orchard will no doubt be regularly treated in the future. 



Such doubts are needless. Protection by spraying will be 

 just as efficient for one man as for another, and provided the ene- 

 mies of the plants are equally serious, the results in one case 

 will be just as marked as they are in the other, if a few points 

 are observed. Without wishing to encourage carelessness in 

 Q 225 



