SPRAYING 233 



danger to human beings who might eventually eat honey from that 

 hive, but doubtless the bees die off too fast to lay up a store that 

 would hurt human beings much. Wasps would not be in the 

 same danger in this respect, because they feed their young not on 

 honey but on caterpillars, etc. ; but wasps are much less valuable 

 than bees in securing a good set of apples on the tree. 



It may be noted that the Long Island Agronomist, which had for 

 some years been urging the farmers and gardeners of Long Island 

 not only to spray diligently, but to prefer Pyrox (a preparation 

 containing both arsenic and copper) to any other spray for most 

 purposes both as insecticide and as fungicide, complained in the 

 fall of 19 1 4 that the Long Island cucumber crop of that year was 

 40 per cent below normal because there were not bees enough to 

 pollinize the blossoms. 



The precaution generally approved is to plow or mow. If a 

 cover crop is to be plowed under, it should on all accounts be 

 plowed as soon as it begins to bloom ; and plowing at any date 

 before you spray saves the bees. If plowing is not in your plan, 

 mow the clover (if in bloom at all) just before spraying ; it thus 

 ceases to rob the ground of valuable moisture, and the stalks 

 can profitably be disked into the soil as soon as they wilt. 



Dr. A. J. Cook, Horticultural Commissioner of California, sug- 

 gests that the cover crop be not clover but vetches, which help 

 the soil as clover does, and bloom after spraying is over. Yellow 

 annual sweet clover is also thought well of in California. Any 

 plant whose blossom droops so that a shower from above runs 

 down outside the petals, and cannot get inside, ought to be safe. 



Another suggestion that has been made is that whenever the 

 spray is poisonous to bees it should be mixed with enough tobacco 

 tea so that the odor will keep bees away from the sprayed area till 

 the poisoned blossoms have had time to wilt. This suggestion has 

 not been tested in practice to determine the amount of tobacco that 

 would have to be used to make it effective. 



The need of spraying. During the year 19 10 the fruit crop 

 was almost a total failure in some of the states. Nearly everyone 

 assumed that in 191 1 there would be no worms because of the 

 lack of fruit to furnish food and breeding ground for the pests. 

 The fallacy of this reasoning was proved, however, by the great 



