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Spraying Fruit Trees and Bushes. [feb., 



strawberries are not open to destruction by spraying ; but the 

 strawberry-leaf beetle {Galeruca tenelld) may have its food 

 poisoned after the fruit has been gathered. This beetle does 

 mot appear until after the fruit is formed, when spraying with a 

 poisonous solution cannot be done with safety. 



Raspberries are rarely sprayed, if ever ; yet they should be 

 treated with diluted Bordeaux mixture or potassium sulphide 

 whenever the fungus, raspberry rust (Phragmidium rubi-idcei), 

 shows in small yellow or greenish-yellow spots on the leaves ; 

 also when the small reddish spots of the fungus, raspberry spot 

 ( Gloeospofium ve?ietum), appear on the canes or young leaves. 

 Mr. George Massee, to whose excellent Text Book of Plant 

 Diseases (Duckworth & Co.) the present writer is much indebted 

 also advises the spraying of the new canes with a solution of 2 lb. 

 of sulphate of iron in five gallons of water when the old canes 

 have been removed. As to insect pests, both the raspberry beetle 

 (Byturns tomentosus) and the raspberry stem-bud moth lay 

 their eggs in the blossom, and therefore it is possible that 

 spraying with a poisonous wash would be as effectual if done 

 just after the petals have fallen, as it is against the caterpillars 

 of the codlin moth in the case of the apple. The raspberry fruit, 

 however, forms and ripens so quickly that there might be danger 

 in the application of a strong poison, such as Paris green, how- 

 ever much diluted. But it may be suggested that a strong- 

 smelling spray, such as potassium sulphide, might possibly deter 

 both pests from depositing their eggs on the treated bushes 

 if used just before the blossom buds open, when it might also 

 serve as a preventive to the fungoid diseases named above. 



Pursuing the plan of noticing varieties of fruit which need to 

 be treated separately, before referring to those which, it will be 

 suggested, might be dealt with on a common method, the highly- 

 injurious fungoid disease known as peach-leaf curl {Exoascns 

 deformans) demands attention. From experience the effective- 

 ness of spraying with Bordeaux mixture as a preventive of 

 this disease can be affirmed with confidence. The peach trees 

 in the writer's garden suffered repeatedly before this preventive 

 was tried, whereas they have since been almost entirely free from 

 the malady. The plan pursued was that of spraying with 

 Bordeaux mixture just before the leaf-buds opened, and a second 



