Insuring the Garden's Crop— By w. h. Jenkins, 



New 

 York 



TIMELY SUGGESTIONS FOR DEFENDING YOUR FRUITS, SHRUBBERY AND VEGETABLES FROM THE ONSLAUGHT OF 

 INSECTS AND DISEASE — OR HINTS FOR THE AMATEUR FROM WHAT WIDE AWAKE ORCHARDISTS ARE DOING 



THE wise gardener prepares now, in 

 early spring, to fight the diseases 

 and insects of the year. Those 

 who use only small quantities may prefer 

 to buy stock spraying solutions, on account 

 of their convenience, and economy of time. 

 Naturally it is more expensive to buy ready 

 made stock spraying solutions and there 

 is the satisfaction, when one makes these 

 solutions, of knowing just what is in the 

 spray and so have an intelligent idea of 

 when and how to use any given remedy. 



The best all-round spraying solution 

 that is easiest made, and can be used for 

 the most purposes, is bordeaux mixture, 

 especially when combined with arsenical 

 poisons, which make it both a fungicide 

 and an insecticide, useful, for not only 

 tree fruits and vine fruits, but strawberries 

 and some garden vegetables, as potatoes, 

 celery, etc. Lime-sulphur wash, that is 

 now taking the place of bordeaux mixture 

 in large orchards, is more difficult to make 

 in small quantities at home, and its use 

 is more restricted in the home garden 

 except in "ready prepared" manufactures. 

 The same is true of whale oil soap and 

 nicotine preparations. 



I have for several years used a knapsack 

 sprayer with force pump (which can now 

 be bought in various makes for five to 

 ten dollars) in my fruit and vegetable 

 garden of a few acres, and it has proved 

 itself well adapted for all purposes. I can 

 carry it on my shoulders, or on a cart, or 

 in a wheelbarrow, or set it in a wagon for 

 spraying the higher trees. Small low 

 headed trees can be covered by setting it 

 on the ground. Any force pump sprayer 

 with different nozzles, will do very well. 

 Manufacturers of spraying machinery offer 

 many styles to suit the needs of every one. 



If you intend to use bordeaux, by all 

 means make a stock solution that will 

 dilute to at least fifty gallons for use all 

 summer. You will need two kegs or ves- 

 sels that will hold ten or fifteen gallons 

 each, that are strong and light. At the 

 store you can also find a box perhaps two 

 by four and one or two feet deep, that 

 can be made tight with nails. This can 

 be used for slacking the lime. You can 

 safely buy a considerable quantity of cop- 

 per sulphate, or blue vitriol, as it will 

 keep for several years, and the cost is 

 small. If it is not kept for sale con- 

 veniently near you, your hardware mer- 

 chant or druggist should be able to get it, 

 or you can order a bag from some manu- 

 facturer of spraying solutions or imple- 

 ments. Next go to a dealer in stone or 

 caustic lime. If a barrel of lime is opened, 

 and it is found to have begun to slake on 

 the top, dig down and get a few pounds of 

 the unslaked chunks of lime below. 



The standard formula for bordeaux is 

 five pounds of lime, five pounds of copper 

 sulphate, and fifty gallons of water. So, 

 take one pound of lime and one pound 

 of the sulphate for each ten gallons of the 



dilute mixture you wish to make. Get an 

 open brass or porcelain lined vessel, two 

 feet or so deep, and put in four or five 

 gallons of hot water, tie up five pounds 

 of sulphate of copper in a porous bag and 

 suspend it in the water. If this is done 

 at night it should be dissolved by morn- 

 ing. Put five pounds of lime in your box 

 and pour on it, a little at a time, hot water. 

 In this way slake it gradually until there 

 are no lumps and all is like paste. A very 

 convenient stock solution is that which 

 contains one-fourth the water in the 

 standard mixture, so empty your slacked 

 lime and dissolved sulphate each in separate 

 kegs provided for this purpose. A good 

 place for these is in the cellar. If you 

 put six gallons of water in each keg or 

 vessel, this will make twelve gallons, and 

 this increased four times when using, with 

 the small quantity of water used in slack- 



THE SPRAYS TO USE 



MATERIALS FOR SPRING WORK 

 AGAINST INSECTS 



Note. For the convenience of those who need sprays 

 in small quantities only there are several manufac- 

 tured articles put up "ready for use" by dilution 

 with water. These are efficient and a real conven- 

 ience also to the busy man. 



Arsenate of Lead. The standard poison spray. 

 Use 3 pounds of the paste to 50 gallons of water, or 

 1 tablespoonful to 1 gallon. Can be used equally 

 well in bordeaux mixture. 



Paris Green. An older material, but effective. 

 Use 5 ounces to 50 gallons of water and add 1 pound 

 of lump lime. Or use 1 heaping teaspoonful to 3 

 gallons of water and add 2 or 3 ounces of lime. 



Kerosene Emulsion. Shave up \ pound of soap in 

 1 gallon of hot water (soft) . Add 2 gallons of kero- 

 sene. Churn violently until a creamy emulsion is 

 formed. Dilute this with 10 or 12 parts of water. 



Tobacco Extract. Cover tobacco stems with water 

 and steep over night. Dilute the resulting liquor 

 with 1 to 2 parts of water. Or, buy the concen- 

 trated, commercial extract and dilute according to 

 directions. 



Soap Solution. Good for plant lice. Dissolve 1 

 pound of soap in 5 gallons of water. 



Poison Bran Mash. Excellent for cutworms, but 

 keep poultry away for a few days. Mix paris green 

 with bran — enough to give it a slightly greenish 

 tinge. Sweeten water with sugar or molasses. 

 Moisten the poisoned bran with this, to make a stiff 

 mash, not too wet. Scatter over the ground before 

 plants are up. 



ing the lime and dissolving the sulphate, 

 will make very close to fifty gallons. 

 When ready for spraying, all you have to 

 do is to take one part of the combined 

 stock solutions and three parts of water, 

 and strain through the sieve which is gen- 

 erally attached to the sprayer. 



The above solution is a fungicide used 

 mostly to protect foliage from fungi or 

 blight. When the bordeaux is to be used 

 for the double purpose of a fungicide and 

 insecticide, as for spraying for both leaf 

 blight on trees and codling moth, add two 

 pounds of arsenate of lead to fifty gallons 

 of the mixture, first adding water to the 

 arsenate, so as to make a thin paste, 

 otherwise the arsenate will form into a hard 

 lump and not dissolve readily. Arsenate 

 of lead is better than paris green because 

 it adheres to the trees, has some of the 



172 



properties of a fungicide, and in some 

 cases, being white, is a marker. Paris 

 green can be used in its place if more con- 

 venient. 



As the lime-sulphur wash is more effective 

 in controlling San Jose scale and other 

 scale diseases, and is used in apple orchards 

 for nearly all purposes for which bordeaux 

 is used, it may sometimes be needed in 

 the home orchard, or for spraying the 

 shrubbery. 



The standard formula is: pure lump 

 lime, 36 lbs.; sulphur, 80 lbs.; water 50 

 lbs. To prepare: heat about ten gallons 

 of water in the cooking vessel and use 

 it to slake the lime. As the slaking com- 

 mences, empty in the sulphur and keep the 

 mixture well stirred to break the lumps of 

 sulphur and lime. When the entire amount 

 of lime has been slaked, add the full amount 

 of water. Keep the mixture well stirred and 

 boil for one hour. Test the mixture with 

 a hydrometer and dilute according to its 

 density as told in The Garden Magazine for 

 March, 191 2, page 96. For spraying apple 

 trees add two pounds of arsenate of lead 

 to fifty gallons of the mixture. The amateur 

 who uses only a small quantity had better 

 buy one of the commercial preparations. 



The most successful orchardists spray 

 apple trees as follows: The first spraying 

 is given before the buds of the trees start 

 to grow in spring, which in New York is 

 in April. At this time lime-sulphur alone 

 is used both for fungi and scale. Lime- 

 sulphur, or bordeaux with arsenate of lead 

 is used for the second spraying which is 

 given just as the leaf buds are opening: 

 the third spraying, bordeaux is given just 

 as the blossom buds separate, but before 

 the flower is actually open; fourth spray 

 is given as soon as the petals drop and 

 before the calyx closes: fifth, spraying ten 

 days later, and the sixth, forty-five days 

 after the fourth spraying. 



The amateur fruit grower will probably 

 not find time to do such thorough work 

 as the above, and good results will follow 

 spraying with bordeaux just before buds 

 open and two sprayings with bordeaux and 

 arsenate after the blossoms fall. Other 

 fruit trees are mostly sprayed with bor- 

 deaux during the growing season, for leaf 

 blight. Cherries are much better for the 

 spraying, and blight and black rot on 

 the grape vines is controlled. Strawberry 

 plants sprayed with bordeaux alone, as 

 soon as the leaves are nearly grown, resist 

 rust or blight much better, and often a crop 

 may be saved. Bordeaux is not needed 

 for the currant and gooseberry worm, but 

 instead use arsenate of lead alone, about 

 the same strength as for destroying the 

 potato beetle (or one heaping teaspoonful 

 to ten quarts of water) or three to four 

 times as much paris green. Apple tree 

 and other tree borers are destroyed by the 

 application of Carbolineum, a commercial 

 wood preservative, to the infected portions, 

 but only during the growing season. 



