120 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1918. 



on the latter plot where all 3 applications were made. A more 

 striking fact is that where the pink bud spray was omitted nearly 

 13.5 per cent more merchantable apples were obtained, due to 

 the greater freedom from russeting. 



The experience of the season of 1916 tends to confirm the 

 opinion expressed by the writer in Bulletin 249 that it is not 

 necessarily a foregone conclusion, under Maine conditions, that 

 the spraying operations of the year are doomed to utter failure 

 if no spray is applied till after the petals fall. Previous to 1917 

 in only one year out of 5 has anything approaching this been 

 the case on these experimental plots. Three years out of 5 

 very little difference in scab control was obtained on the plots 

 with and without the first application. The remaining season 

 there was a little over 3 per cent increase in scab as a result of 

 omitting the pink bud spray. On account of increased russet- 

 ing, less merchantable apples were obtained 3 years out of 5 

 where all 3 applications of lime-sulphur were made. Doubtless 

 this would not have been the case with a variety of apples where 

 the skin of the fruit is less tender than that of the Ben Davis. 



It will be seen on comparing the per cents of scabby apples 

 obtained on plots 4 and 5 in 191 7, Table III, that this was a 

 season where the omission of the pink-bud application was a 

 matter of much importance for over 19 per cent more scab was 

 obtained by so doing. It strongly emphasized the fact, not 

 always recognized by growers, that spraying is really a form 

 of insurance and that even though the records obtained in this 

 series of experiments so far, indicate that the pink-bud applica- 

 tion may be omitted in certain seasons with little or no increase 

 in the amount of scab resulting, such an omission may be a 

 matter of considerable importance in controlling the disease. 



It is not the writer's intention to imply by any of the above 

 discussion that the results secured indicate that the pink-bud 

 spray is ever unnecessary in Maine and that it ever should be 

 omitted from the spraying program. It is intended to empha- 

 size the fact that, if for any good reason no spray is applied 

 till the petals fall, the chances of preventing infection, as shown 

 by the results obtained over a series of years, are still good if 

 the remaining applications of spray material are made as usual. 

 Such would not have been the case in 191 7 and undoubtedly 

 still another fungicidal spray applied about the middle of May, 



