338 FRUIT AND ITS CULTIVATION. 



as part of his ordinary routine work; and the amateur 

 with anything worth calling an orchard under his care 

 must follow suit if he wishes his trees and his fruit to 

 be a credit to his skill. No one wants to spray more than 

 is absolutely necessary; the desire should rather be to 

 reduce the work to the minimum that suffices to keep the 

 trees healthy ; but the grower is lucky when he escapes 

 spraying two or three times in the year; and in a bad 

 season, or when his trees are severely attacked by any 

 particular enemy, he may have to treat them several times 

 in addition. The great thing is to take an attack in time, 

 for it is much more easily dealt with in its early stages 

 than after it has become firmly established. Take an 

 attack of Leaf-curling Aphis (greenfly), for instance, with 

 which the fruit grower has to contend nearly every year. 

 Once the pests have curled themselves up in the leaves 

 they are practically safe, because no spray can reach 

 them. It is only by catching them when they first appear, 

 before they protect themselves in the way described, that 

 they can be dealt with successfully. The grower should 

 be amongst his trees constantly in the spring and early 

 summer, from the time when the first buds burst, so that 

 he may detect the coming of the queen Aphides, the Apple 

 Sucker (psylla), many minute caterpillars, and other pests 

 that make their appearance on the young leaves and 

 amongst the bloom buds. At that time they are com- 

 paratively easily dealt with, but if neglected they increase 

 with wonderful rapidity, particularly in a cold season, 

 when vegetation is slow to develop, and before long they 

 become a formidable host, difficult to combat with any 

 degree of satisfaction. 



The Year's Spraying Simplified. A beginner making 

 his first study of a text-book of pests and diseases might 

 well imagine, from the multitude of enemies and the 

 number of different remedies advised, that his spraying 

 operations must be almost endless, and his store of 

 chemicals enough to stock a chemist's shop. Fortu- 



