1899-] SPRAYING APPLE TREES. 185 



periodicals, have contributed a fund of information bearing on this 

 subject, and it is certainly to be regretted that so few growers have 

 profited thereby. Those who have failed to get the principles of spray- 

 ing well in hand during the development of the subject, often do not 

 have these within their reach when the fact of its advantages has been 

 finally made known to them. Indeed, there is at the present time a very 

 great demand for elementary information in regard to this subject. 

 During the past three months the Horticultural Department of this 

 Station has received more than two hundred inquiries for light regarding 

 spraying solutions and spraying machinery. It is because of the evident 

 demand for this latter class of information that the section on spraying 

 machinery has been inserted. 



Specific Directions. 



The following summary of points to be remembered in spraying 

 apple trees for scab and codling-moth are the best that can be given 

 from the many series of experiments carried on at this Station and else- 

 where. 



The early spraying with copper sulphate on the dormant wood is 

 not always advisable, since the application must often be made when 

 the ground is so soft as to make the injury done by trampling greater 

 than any benefit received from the spray. 



The first application of the combined solutions of Bordeaux mixture 

 and Paris green made just before the flower buds open is, with respect 

 to the apple scab fungus, the most important spray of the season. 



The second application of Bordeaux mixture and Paris green, made 

 immediately after the blossoms fall is, with respect to the codling-moth, 

 the most important; yet is of great value, too, for the apple scab fungus. 

 In regard to this point Professor Slingerland, on page 59, bulletin 142 of 

 the Cornell University Experiment Station, says: "The important thing 

 for the fruit grower to do is to watch the blossoming of his trees and the 

 developing of the young fruit, and not depend on anything or anybody 

 else. Simply see to it that there is a good dose of poison put into each 

 blossom end, and that it is not washed out by rains before nature gets it 

 protected with the closed calyx lobes." The sooner this second appli- 

 cation can be made after the blossoms fall the greater will be the per- 

 centage of larvae of codling-moth killed. From 50 to 90 per cent, of 

 fruit that would otherwise be ruined by this insect can be saved by 

 spraying, and at little expense. 



A third application of Bordeaux mixture and Paris green should be 

 made in eight or ten days after the blossoms have fallen, and in many 

 instances another after a period of two weeks. 



