FIG. 75. The Pear Sawfly 

 Erlocampa (enlarged). 



SUMMER SPRAYING 



February. The following recipe is recommended : Soft soap, 

 \ Ib. ; paraffin, 5 pints ; caustic soda, 2 Ibs. ; water, 9^ gallons. 



Caustic soda in solution attacks the skin of the hands, and 

 may cause serious wounds. In handling this solution, therefore, 

 leather or rubber gloves should be worn. The mixture must be 

 continually stirred, otherwise the soap and the paraffin will rise to 

 the surface of the liquid. 



A simple, but not so generally 

 effective, winter wash for apple trees 

 is made by employing a mixture con- 

 taining 15 Ibs. of quicklime, 2 Ibs. of 

 common salt in 8 gallons of water. 

 The salt is dissolved in the water, the 

 quicklime is slaked just before using 

 by adding to it just so much water as 

 will cause it to crumble into finely 

 powdered slaked lime. It is then 

 stirred into the salt solution, and the 

 mixture painted on to trunk and 

 branches with a large brush. 



SUMMER SPRAYING. While winter 

 washing should be regarded as a 

 matter of routine in fruit planta- 

 tions, summer treatment should, as 

 a rule, only be done when a serious 

 insect or fungus attack is imminent. 

 Different pests are injured or de- 

 stroyed by different substances, and 

 in different ways. Lead arseniate pro- 

 bably poisons the insects, paraffin 

 either poisons or corrodes them. Carbon bisulphide injected into 

 the soil destroys the grubs, soft soap stops up the breathing 

 pores. Fungi can be effectually removed only by treating them 

 at regular intervals with a solution of either copper sulphate or 

 sulphide of potassium, which destroys the spores. It is obviously 

 beyond the scope of this book to go into this matter in greater 

 detail. It will be sufficient, perhaps, to give here detailed 



