The Canadian Horticulturist. 



14.1 



THE SPRAYING SEASON. 



|jp^==^^^HE importance of always having the proper formula just at hand, 

 \^m Pm^ leads us to repeat some of those most commonly needed. 

 Bordeaux mixture (for apple scab, grape mildew, etc., etc). 

 In a barrel that will hold forty-five gallons dissolve six pounds 

 of copper sulphate, using eight or ten gallons of water, or as 

 much as may be necessary for the purpose. In a tub or half 

 barrel slake four pounds q^ fresh lime. When completely 

 slaked add enough water to make a creamy whitewash. Pour 

 this slowly into the barrel containing the copper-sulphate solu- 

 tion, using coarse scaking stretched over the head of the barrel for a 

 strainer. Finally, fill the barrel with water, stir thoroughly, and the mixture is 

 ready for use. Prepared in this way, the cost of one gallon of Ihe mixture will 

 not exceed one cent, the cost of copper sulphate being seven cents per pound, 

 and lime thirty cents per bushel. In all cases it is desirable to use powdered 

 copper sulphate, as it costs but little more and dissolves much more readily. It 

 is highly important also that fresh lime be used. 



Kerosene emulsion. — This insecticide acts by contact and is applicable to all 

 nonmasticating insects (sucking insects, such as the true bugs, and especially 

 plant-lice and scale-insects), and also the mandibulate or masticating in.sects, 

 such as the apple worm or plum curculio, when the use of arsenites is not advis- 

 able. Kerosene emulsion may be made by means of various emulsifying agents, 

 but the most satisfactory substances — and those most available to the average 

 farmer and fruit-grower — are milk and soapsuds. In each of these cases the 

 amount of emulsifying agent should be made one-half the quantity of kerosene. 

 One of the most satisfactory formulas is as follows : 



Per cent. 



Keioseiie gallons. . 2 fiT 



Common soap or whale-oi] soap pounds ..11 



^■Vater gallons. . 1 ( '^-^ 



Heat the solution of soap and add it boiling hot to the kerosene. Churn the 

 mixture by means of a force pump and spray nozzle for five or ten minutes. 

 The emulsion, if perfect, forms a cream which thickens upon cooling and should 

 adhere without oiliness to the surface of glass. If the water from the soil is 

 liard, or has a large percentage of lime add a little lye or bicarbonate of soda, or 

 else use rain-water. For use against scale-insects dilute one part of the emulsion 

 with nine parts of cold water. For most other insects, dilute one part of the 

 emulsion with fifteen parts of water. For soft insects like plant-lice, the dilution 

 may be carried to twenty to twenty-five parts of water. 



Paris Green (for codling moth and curculio) may be applied to plum and 

 other trees, except the peach, at the rate of one to two hundred pounds of water 

 2 



