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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



2. That the spraying machines and those who use them are capable 

 of rapidly and efficiently doing their work. 



As regards the first point, fruit growers are labouring under immense 

 disadvantages compared with growers in most other civilized countries, 

 more particularly compared with the United States of America and 

 Canada, where really practical and scientific advice and ocular demon- 

 strations can be had for the mere asking. If it were not for one public- 

 spirited nobleman, the Duke of Bedford, and a few men of science 

 actuated by a like spirit, we should have to learn what we could from 

 abroad or by our own individual experiments. Until there is a properly 

 constituted sub-committee of the Board of Agriculture to deal with 

 all matters of interest to fruit growers, and one or more Government 

 Experimental Fruit Stations, managed by practical men, assisted by the 

 best scientific advice, it will continue to be a very uphill fight for fruit 

 growers. It is not a party question ; it is one that affects fruit growers 

 and fruit consumers of every shade of political opinion, that a sufficient 

 supply of really fine fruit should be produced in their own country. 



When I look at the minutes of evidence taken by a Government 

 Departmental Committee in the year 1904, evidence given by the leading 

 fruit growers and experts in the United Kingdom, and filling over 500 

 closely printed pages, and remember that the recommendations of this 

 Committee have been utterly ignored, I cannot but think that such 

 procedure on the part of those responsible is, to speak mildly, not 

 business-like. 



I maybe excused for straying from my subject, but this appears to me 

 a matter of such importance that fruit growers should not allow it to drop. 



To come back to the point that the spray fluid should be capable of 

 destroying a large proportion of the insects against which it is directed. 

 We must not for a moment expect that any wash will destroy more than 

 a large proportion and keep the pest in check. I wish that some of the 

 fairy tales which are sometimes advertised were facts, as I heard it very 

 pertinently remarked of a certain wash which, it was stated, would 

 destroy nearly all harmful insects and their eggs. Only one thing is 

 omitted from the advertisement, and that is the promise that the wash 

 would not destroy beneficial insects. Such advertisements as this defeat 

 the ends of the advertisers and do an immense amount of harm. 



Washes require very thorough testing for a prolonged period, under 

 varying conditions, before it can be fairly stated that they are effective. 



The next point is the efficiency of spraying machines and nozzles. 

 .Many of the spraying machines have insufficient capacity and pressure. 

 The same nozzles do no! appear suitable for damping all parts of a tree, 

 owing to their being so fixed to the spray arm that they can spray only 

 the top or lower portion of the tree thoroughly. A nozzle is required to 

 spray in a direct line of the spray arm for the tops of trees, and at right 

 angles to the spray arm for lower branches. Nozzles might be made to 

 effect this double purpose, or perhaps there is one already on the market. 



In connection with this point, viz. spraying trees thoroughly, more 

 knowledge is needed as to the quantity of wash required thoroughly to 

 spray a tree of a given size. To say, stop spraying when the fluid 

 commences to drip from the leaves, may be very misleading. A part of 



