1892 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



ing clixcken coops to destroy mites, lice, 

 etc. 



Bucket pumps were never designed for 

 spraying the apple orcliard, but they are 

 convenient for spraying truck crops, small 

 trees and bushes around the yard, chicken 

 coops, and doing many other small jobs 

 about the home, where a small, convenient 

 pump is needed. The Knapsack pump is 

 a portable type of bucket pump, very 

 useful for small work, and for spraying 

 truck and garden crops. 



Automatic sprayers are more conven- 

 ient than knapsack sprayers, for they 

 may be filled and then pumped up with 

 air and the entire attention of the 

 operator can be devoted to spraying with- 

 out having to do the double duty of pump- 

 ing and spraying at the same time. They 

 are very convenient and readily carried 

 about. For truck crops they are hard to 

 beat when they are well made. 



A fault of the larger part of the spray- 

 ers of this type is that they are made of 

 galvanized iron and are corroded so rapid- 

 ly by the Bordeaux sprays that they be- 

 come worthless in a year or two. To be 

 durable they must be constructed of 

 heavy sheet brass, preferably seamless or 

 with well riveted joints. For small work, 

 a well-made sprayer of this type is al- 

 most ideal. 



Compressed-air sprayers have some ad- 

 vantage, since they are easily operated 

 and are of very simple construction. For 

 such outfits the first cost of the charging 

 and mixing plant and of the sprayer tanks 

 is somewhat greater than that of the av- 

 erage power outfit having an equivalent 

 daily capacity, so far as the amount of 

 liquid sprayed out is concerned. The 

 pressure, when using a compressed-air 

 sprayer, must vary between two extremes, 

 usually from 160 to 80 pounds while the 

 tankful of solution is being discharged. 

 This tends to make the work uneven, 

 since the quality of the spray varies from 

 fine to coarse and there is also a vari' 

 ation in the amount of liquid discharged 

 in a given time. On the other hand, 

 power outfits are operated under an al- 

 most constant pressure which is often as 

 great as 200 pounds to the square inch. 



Considering these facts, and also that 

 the amount of skilled labor required to 

 operate either outfit is practically the 

 same, I have reached the conclusion, after 

 having operated both types of outfits in 

 the field, that for the average orehardist, 

 a power outfit is superior to the com- 

 pressed-air outfit. 



In either case the operator must pos- 

 sess average mechanical ability and ex- 

 ercise i*easonable care. 



Sprayers using compressed gas have the 

 disadvantage of decomposing the lime- 

 sulphur sprays. For killing scale insects, 

 lime-sulphur spray is one of the best, and 

 is almost universally used in orchard 

 work. 



Dust sprayers have been successfully 

 used in treating cotton, tobacco and a 

 few similar field crops. In general or- 

 chard work they have not proved a suc- 

 cess, as has been demonstrated in ex- 

 tensive competitive tests against liquid 

 sprayers. However, they have shown 

 merit for such special use as dusting 

 orange groves for rust mito. Their range 

 of usefulness is evidently quite restricted. 



In the following tables I have attempt- 

 ed to list the manufacturers who make 

 various kinds of machines, so that an 

 intending purchaser may write to those 

 companies which build the kind of a 

 machine he wishes to purchase, for cat- 

 alogues and prices of the same. 



In conclusion: 



1 Choose a machine that has the fact- 

 ors of simplicity, durability and capacity 

 and the efficiency of the machine will be 

 unquestioned. 



2 Cost is another question. A few 

 dollars higher in price usually means 

 better quality and "the best is the cheap- 

 est in the end." 



3 Clean up your machine and access- 

 ories each time when you are through 

 spraying. 



4. Keep your machine in good trim, all 

 bolts and bearings tight, plunger packed, 

 etc. 



5 Use good oil and plenty of it 



6 If something goes wrong and fails 

 to work find out what the trouble is 

 before you change any adjustments. 



