Appendix. 



SPRAYING. 



Spraying is absolutely necessary nowadays to ensure good fruit every year. 

 There are so many injurious insects and fungous diseases which attacl< the trees 

 and fruit that it is very rarely a tree, if unsprayed, will escape being affected by 

 something which will lessen the crop of No. i fruit. 



Spraying is not sprinkling, and in order to get good results it is necessary 

 to apply the mixtures and solutions in as fine a spray as possible. A mist-like 

 spray that will float through the air and envelop the tree and fruit is what is 

 required. A coarse spray will run off the foliage and often will accumulate at the 

 tips of the leaves and cause injury rather than benefit the tree. Thoroughness is 

 just as essential in spraying as in anything else. In spraying for most fungous 

 diseases the object is, to cover all of the surface of the leaf and fruit with the 

 mixture so that when a spore comes in contact with it, it will be destroyed. The 

 more of the surface that is left uncovered the more spores will germinate, and as 

 they are usually present in millions the necessity of thorough spraying should be 

 apparent. In spraying to control biting insects, thoroughness is just as essen- 

 tial, for unless the poison is well distributed many of the insects will not be de- 

 stroyed and much injury will be done. In fighting insects, such as the San Jose 

 Scale, the Aphis, and the Oyster Shell Bark Louse, which are killed by contact 

 poisons, thoroughness is even more necessary, as these multiply so rapidly that 

 a few insects which escape may soon reinfest the whole tree. 



Spraying should be timely. Very often through ignorance of the habits of 

 the insect or disease, spraying is delayed until after the season is passed when it 

 could be controlled ; hence time and money are often thrown away and the lack 

 of success in spraying is blamed on the ineffectiveness of the mixture rather than 

 the lack of knowledge of the man who sprayed. It is true that every man cannot 

 learn the life history of all injurious insects and diseases, nor is this really neces- 

 sary, but the average orchardist should know more about them than he does. 



Every fruit grower should have a spray pump of some kind. The amateur 

 may be content with a small hand pump which will suit his purposes quite well 

 but the commercial grower should have a barrel pump or one of the power spray- 

 ers which are now pn the market, and which permit of obtaining that mistlike 

 spray already referred to. Labor is expensive and hard to get on the average 

 farm, hence a sprayer should be purchased which will economize time and labor 

 as much as possible. 



The following spray calendar will, it is believed, give nearly all the informa- 

 tion which the average fruit grower requires. Descriptions of insects and fung- 

 ous diseases are not given in this work, as they are dealt with at length in special 

 publications. 



[26.^] 



