70 BIGGLE ORCHARD BOOK 



Concentrated lime-sulphur: Several good ready- 

 prepared mixtures are now on the market, and are 

 successfully used by orchardists who do not care to 

 bother with home mixing. These commercial mixtures 

 merely need diluting with about eight parts of cold 

 water, and are then ready to use; thus they prove 

 very convenient for the man who has only a few trees, 

 or who does not mind the slightly greater cost of the 

 factory product. 



Caution: The lime-sulphur mixtures given in this 

 chapter must not be applied to trees that are in 

 foliage; use on dormant trees, only. 



The month of March is the best month in which to 

 spray, if only one application is given. But often- 

 times the work can be done in February to better ad- 

 vantage. Some orchardists spray twice, in the fall 

 after the leaves drop, and again in the early spring. 



Summer or early fall spraying with one pound of 

 whale-oil soap dissolved in five or six gallons of water, 

 may help to hold the San Jose scale lice in check until 

 late fall or early spring applications of the lime-sul- 

 phur mixture can be made. Whale-oil soap solution 

 will not hurt foliage. Or try the self-boiled or mild 

 form lime-sulphur mentioned in Chapter VII. 



George T. Powell, of New York State, says that he 

 is getting interesting results in an attempt to dwarf 

 standard trees. They are kept low headed. He prunes 

 them in July to check the growth, cutting them well 

 back ; then in September when growth has practically 

 ceased, he prunes off any shoots which have started 

 since July, thus leaving only the sound mature wood 

 to go through the winter. He has nearly 1,000 trees 



