THE CANADIAN nORTICULTURIST. 



143 



having any knowledge of the cause, 

 and this can only be acqnii'ed through 

 a thorough knowledge of the vegetable 

 kingdom through which the causes 

 originate. I think this is enough for 

 the present. E,_ 



Berlin, 6th April, 1885. 



F.S. — In alluding to the Black Knot 

 fungus on the plum, I forgot to mention 

 another fungus aflecting the fruit of the 

 plum ti-ee, which usually exhibits itself 

 in the shape of a small bladder. If 

 you take a section of it under the 

 microscope, you will find that I am 

 correct. R. 



EXPERIENCE IN SPRAYING WITH 

 PARIS GREEN. 



Mr. Editor, — As the time is near 

 for our fruit trees to put on their beau- 

 tiful clothing of bloom, which alone 

 gives to us the expectation of a coming 

 harvest, I send you a little of my expe- 

 rience as a note of warning in the use 

 of Paris Green for destroying insects, 

 or as a remedy for the curculio. The 

 story of the Indian is good — perhaps 

 as near the mark- as we can get : tii'st 

 catch him, and then you can deal with 

 him. I have tried coal tar bnniing 

 under trees wit?li sulphur, making a 

 dense smoke ; have placed a pot full in 

 a calm night, and let it burn for hours 

 to no purpose ; have tarred paper and 

 wool, and tied them about the trees, 

 and afterwards found the curculios 

 sleeping in the folds in safety. For 

 two years I have used Paris Green, 

 one-third to one-half teaspoonful to a 

 pail of water, thrown over the trees by 

 a hand-pump in the form of spray, be- 

 ginning before all the blossoms had left 

 the young fruit for the first application, 

 repeating the application for several 

 weeks in succession on apples, plums, 

 pears, &c. The young apples spi'ayed 

 continued to grow till the third appli- 

 cation, when I noticed the edges of the 

 leaves began to turn brown and present 



a dry appearance, the fruit to almost 

 stop growing, and to stand still by the 

 middle of July. When the apples were 

 about one-half size they began to turn 

 a pale red and to drop, while the leaves 

 fell as in autumn. A Duchess of Old- 

 enburgh acted in a similar manner ; 

 not one-half of the fruit was fit for 

 cider, while some hung on till October 

 no larger than hickory nuts. One red 

 Astrachan tree, very heavily laden, was 

 only sprayed on one side ; the sprayed 

 side acted in the same way as the other 

 tests, while the unsprayed kept green 

 and thrifty, making a fair growth both 

 in fruit and foliage after the other was 

 entirely bare. The fruit on the plum 

 trees was destroyed as well as the foli- 

 age. It began about the fourth appli- 

 cation of the gi-een, and continued till 

 not a leaf was left, while a large por- 

 tion of the fruit was stung and de- 

 stroyed before the leaves died away. 

 To nearly 300 apple trees I only gave 

 one application ; on these I could see 

 no benefit whatever, as those not 

 spraj^ed were as free and sound as those 

 of the one application. One of my ac- 

 quaintances had sever-al fine plum trees, 

 heavily laden with fruit ; part he 

 spraj'ed in 1883, having a fine ci'op of 

 fruit ; last year every tree so used was 

 dead. My opinion, so far, in respect 

 to using the green, is that it must be 

 done very carefully, as a littie too mueh 

 may cause the loss of the trees as well 

 as the fruit. I hope some of your 

 readers will test the use of the green 

 this coming season carefully, till we 

 can ascertain just the strength I'equired 

 to be successful, and not destroy the 

 trees. One teaspoonful to four pails of 

 water is as strong as I would risk on 

 my ti-ees for the present, and stop then 

 at the third application. On pears I 

 could sfee no benefit or harm from it. 

 Yours very truly, 



John P. Williams. 

 Bloomfield, April 6tli, 1885. 



