CONFERENCE ON SPRAYING OF FRUIT TREES. 



319 



Mr. Massee when he says that one of the essential conditions of getting 

 the full good results from Bordeaux mixture is to make it at home. 



Personally, and as the result of experiments during the last two years 

 especially, I have found spraying potatos with Bordeaux mixture gives 

 unmistakably the most valuable results — in this year especially. One 

 could have seen that the sprayed potatos at Wye College in the beginning 

 of September were going on growing vigorous and green, and the crop 

 increasing ; while the unsprayed foliage was flat on the ground. I rather 

 thought that the good effects of spraying with Bordeaux mixture had long 

 passed the experimental stage ; that it was long adopted in England and 

 in foreign countries as an undoubted normal part of the cultivation of 

 potatos. 



Mr. Massee mentioned, as regards peaches, that it is very difficult to 

 get anything to spray them. Of course that is so with the old fungicides. 

 Bordeaux mixture on peach leaves is almost impossible to use, however 

 diluted you have it. I should like to call the attention of those who are 

 interested in growing peaches to a new fungicide, the self -boiled lime- 

 sulphur mixture which has been discovered in the United States. The 

 Department of Agriculture recently issued a Bulletin upon it. It is 

 perfectly safe to use on peach foliage ; and they put forward its claims, 

 not only as a fungicide, but also as an insecticide. 



I find myself in disagreement with Mr. Massee on the subject of when 

 you should spray against fungus diseases. I am absolutely certain that 

 no commercial grower of apples can ever hope to combat apple scab with- 

 out spraying in summer. Theoretically, if you could in the winter stage 

 cut off all the young twigs, then you could deal with the disease ; but 

 going round an apple orchard and cutting off the diseased young wood is 

 not practicable. Spraying is. We heard Mr. Massee himself say that 

 spraying in winter against apple scab is of no use. The only alternative 

 would be pruning off the diseased shoots in winter, and that I am 

 sure would never keep down apple scab. I think the very existence of 

 commercial fruit growing in England depends upon the methods of 

 spraying that we are going to adopt. I am more and more convinced, 

 as I see more fruit growing, that apples will never be grown in this 

 country permanently clean — at least many varieties of them — with- 

 out continual spraying. We shall soon reach I believe a time when this 

 can be done quite economically. When hop washing first came in it was 

 said that it would be impossible to wash hops by the acre. We have not 

 got machinery for washing fruit to such a perfect pitch as that for washing 

 hops, but I am sure that it will arrive. At present there are English 

 makers sending out excellent English machines ; and growers can also 

 obtain imported machines from the United States — which are the very 

 latest things for spraying — and there is no reason why we should, not go 

 ahead in the washing of fruit economically and scientifically. 



The only other point I wish to mention is to endorse what Mr. Getting 

 said in his excellent paper, and that is, that the great need at the present 

 time is a Sub-Department of the Board of Agriculture to look after these 

 most important questions for the commercial growers. As an alternative, 

 Mr. Getting suggested that a body of fruit growers should go over to the 

 United States and learn for themselves. Perhaps if a body of English 



