96 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



March, 1912 



fat tomatoes, all the way up the plant. 

 There were plenty of radishes, baskets of 

 lettuce, spinach, and Swiss chard, and 

 notwithstanding several disappointments, 

 the garden thrived and proved a source of 

 profit, economy and much pleasure. The 

 last to be planted were rows and rows of 

 the Refugee bean, with occasional rows of 

 Swiss chard. The surplus of the vege- 

 tables gathered was canned for the win- 

 ter, and the shelves of the cellar had jars 

 of beans, tomatoes, sauces, and relishes. 



Why and How to Spray Now 



By E. L. D. Seymour, ? 



ew 



York 



You don't know what really sweet corn is unless 

 you have gathered and at once cooked It 



Could more have been done with 687 

 square feet of ground? 



Much of my time has been devoted to 

 the gardening early in the morning or late 

 afternoon. Nor did I neglect the flowers, 

 and a fresh bouquet was gathered every 

 morning. 



Here is a tabulated statement of the 

 details: 



c , PAID FOR 



.Seeds 



Peas, 1 pt $.25 



Onion sets, 1 qt 25 



Onion sets, 1 pt 15 



Spinach, 1 oz 10 



Swiss chard, 1 oz 10 



Corn, 1 qt. . .' 3S 



Beans, 3 pts S3 



* Beans, 1 pt! 15 



Lima beans, 1 qt 40 



Radishes, 2 pkts 10 



Lettuce, 2 pkts 20 



Potatoes, 1 qt 10 



Plants ■ $268 



1 doz. Acme tomatoes . . . $.25 

 6 Ponderosa tomatoes . . . .15 



6 dwarf tomatoes 10 



1 doz. cabbage 10 



1 doz. pepper 10 



25 celery . . 15 



Chives 10 



■ $ .95 



Manure 2 . 50 



Help . .50 



Insecticide .60 



$7-23 

 And I have left over seeds to the value 

 of more than half a dollar. 



WINTER spraying is worth while for 

 three good reasons: convenience, 

 economy, and effectiveness. It is a con- 

 venient practice because between October 

 and April other farm and garden work is 

 at a standstill and because the trees, having 

 shed their leaves, can be more easily cov- 

 ered with the spray mixture; economical, 

 because it involves the use of but one, or 

 at most, two kinds or sprays, namely, lime- 

 sulphur and oil preparations; effective, 

 because lime and sulphur, if thoroughly 

 applied, is a certain destroyer of the peach 

 leaf curl fungus, the oyster shell scale, and 

 the San Jose scale — that second most 

 injurious pest of our fruit trees. 



If you have a dozen or twenty trees — 

 half an acre or less in all — you need only 

 a knapsack sprayer costing from three to 

 ten dollars, according to the type. If you 

 have as many as five acres of trees, you 

 can well afford a twenty or twenty-five 

 dollar barrel outfit mounted on wheels or a 

 sled. If you have ten acres in fruit and pos- 

 sibly more to come, buy a power sprayer. 



Integral parts of any outfit are good 

 nozzles (the Vermorel and Mystery, Jr., 

 types give excellent, fine sprays); sufficient 

 hose to permit work around the trees ; and 

 protection for the sprayer and team, if 

 you use one. Thick gloves, well treated 

 with oil, and overalls are essentials. 



Lime and sulphur is the dormant spray. 

 Others are merely different ways of trying 

 for the same results. The various oil 

 preparations are perhaps a little pleasanter 

 to use; in fact, for the home garden, they 

 are, after all, the most convenient, but for 

 a thorough clean-up nothing beats the sul- 

 phur mixture. If you use use the small 

 outfits mentioned above you had better 

 buy the prepared concentrated lime and 

 sulphur mixture and avoid all the bother of 

 home mixing. This preparation and the 

 prepared miscible oils all cost a little more, 

 but by using them you can economize on 

 time and energy, which are the true meas- 

 ure by which to judge values. 



But if you have to use three or four 

 hundred gallons of spray you will save 

 by making the material at home. A good 

 sized apple tree will use four gallons, and 

 even a peach tree will require two or more. 



There are a number of formulas for 

 making lime and sulphur, but undoubtedly 

 the best gives a concentrated solution as 

 follows: Eighty pounds clean lump lime, 

 forty pounds flowers of sulphur, fifty 

 gallons of water. Ordinarily, this mixture 

 will make the final spray cost about nine- 

 tenths of a cent per gallon. Commercial 

 mixtures come to about one and three- 

 quarters cents per gallon — a negligible 

 difference on a small scale. 



For making the mixture at home, a 

 cooking outfit is necessary. This can 

 be bought for from ten to forty dollars, 

 the latter amount providing a steam 



cooking outfit which really gives the best 

 results. However, an ordinary feed cooker 

 can be used provided it gives room for the 

 boiling up of the material. The process of 

 making lime and sulphur is not difficult. 

 Put ten gallons of water in the boiler and 

 start the fire. Add the lime, and as soon 

 as slaking begins vigorously, add the dry 

 sulphur, stirring thoroughly meanwhile. 

 Unless the sulphur is of very good quality, 

 it will be well to strain it. Boil this 

 mixture for about an hour, adding suffi- 

 cient water to keep the final mixture at 

 fifty gallons. If steam is used, this addi- 

 tion will not be necessary. Stir occa- 

 sionally in order to prevent the accumula- 

 tion of sediment on the sides of the tank. 

 If correctly made, the preparation should 

 become a brilliant orange color ; the cooking 

 is completed when all the sulphur is seen 

 to go into solution. The material may 

 be used at once, being poured or strained 

 into the spray tank, or it may be stored 

 in air-tight receptacles indefinitely. 



Commercial concentrated lime and sul- 

 phur should be diluted about ten times. 

 The only way to get accurate results with 

 the homemade mixture is to test it with a 

 hydrometer. This instrument, consisting 

 of a graduated tube and an enlarged 

 weighted base, can be bought of any firm 

 that supplies chemical apparatus. The 

 mixture should be placed in a vessel deep 

 enough to permit the sinking of the 

 hydrometer as far as it will go. 



The degree on the long, narrow neck 

 to which the liquid rises should then be 

 read, and recorded. Hydrometers are 

 marked in one or both of two ways, viz., the 

 specific gravity or the Beaume scale. The 

 former is by far the more convenient for 

 this work, although reduction tables com- 

 bining the two scales can be obtained when 

 the hydrometer is bought. 



To get the correct degree of dilution, 

 divide the fraction of the amount recorded 

 as above by the specific gravity of the final 

 spray mixture desired. This will give the 

 number of dilutions necessary. For in- 

 stance, if the concentrated mixture tests 

 1.24 and we desire to spray with a mix- 

 ture testing 1.03, we have the following: 

 ;-|f — 8, i. e., the addition of seven volumes 

 of water will be necessary. 



The strength of the spray mixture is 

 determined by the use for which it is 

 desired. Specific gravities of 1.03 and 1.04 

 mark the usual strengths for dormant 

 spraying for San Jose scale; on peach and 

 plum trees and other tender species, the 

 specific gravity should not be higher than 

 1.02 to 1. 01. An additional advantage 

 of this concentrated mixture is that it can 

 be used for summer spraying if diluted 

 to a specific gravity of 1.003. It is not 

 essential that the commercial mixtures 

 be tested, but it is certainly advisable 

 where the hydrometer is available. 



