CONFERENCE ON SPRAYING OF FRUIT TREES. 



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this : seven years ago I planted (apart from some old orchards which I had) 

 on new ground something over an acre of young apples, mostly Cox's ; 

 they were just where the greensand joins the gault. We have an 

 intermediate loam, beautiful land, with a slight tilt to the south ; and for 

 the first few years I do not think there were better trees to be seen in the 

 whole of the county, and everybody who came there agreed. When they 

 first came into bearing I brought up two dishes to the Royal Horticultural 

 Show and I got first prize with my first dish, and I could very easily, I 

 think, have got first prize with my second dish. About four, years ago the 

 leaf-spot began to appear in our neighbourhood. I think mine is a very 

 good illustration of a case of trying to grapple with the disease, because 

 the trees are cultivated in a large open field where my bulbs are growing, 

 and I think I may say that no piece of ground could be kept more 

 scrupulously clean or be treated better in every way with regard to the 

 first planting of the trees and the subsequent management. I very much 

 want to get hold of some practical help with regard to this leaf-spot. 

 We have tried winter spraying, we have tried summer spraying, and I 

 think I have tried every recipe. I know very well what the symptoms of 

 the disease are, but up to the present time I have not been able to get any 

 remedy at all. We have sprayed very carefully and well in the winter ; 

 we have sprayed in the summer with Bordeaux mixture, with sulphur, 

 liver of sulphur, and with one or two other things, including a very much 

 advertised summer wash. We made our own Bordeaux mixture, and I 

 do not think, pace Mr. Chittenden, that we made it too strong. I think 

 that if we made it much weaker we should not get a chance of killing the 

 fungus, which is very virulent indeed. I found that we either covered 

 the top surface of the leaf entirely or we did not cover it ; but whenever 

 it was fairly well covered I found on examination that the spores, as 

 Mr. Massee has said, germinated very freely on the surface. I wrote to 

 Mr. Chittenden, and he told me that the under-surface of the leaf should 

 be sprayed. I do not quite know how that is to be done, but if it is done 

 I am very strongly of opinion that what Mr. Massee says would come to 

 pass, that the leaf would be practically choked. It would be in the 

 position of those unfortunate children who were once sized and burnished 

 for a religious procession, which was very effective ; they shone and they 

 looked very natural as cherubs — but they unfortunately died. Well, I 

 very much want someone to tell us something of his practical experience 

 of Cox's orange and this leaf-spot. I am in the position of having done 

 everything I think that could be done for it — taken all kinds of advice and 

 used such common sense as I may or may not have — and we can do 

 nothing at all with it. I am very anxious to hear whether anybody has 

 any practical experience in the matter of combating this very injurious 

 leaf-spot on our most valuable dessert apple, the Cox's orange. 



Mr. Collinge : I have just a few remarks to make, and that is in 

 connection with the much-discussed question of Bordeaux mixture. I 

 have been having a series of experiments lately on different Bordeaux 

 mixtures, upwards of twenty, that have been obtained from makers in 

 different parts of Europe, and I have submitted them to two chemists, 

 and they agree with me that, so far as representing them to the fruit 

 grower as substances which can be used with any efficacy, they are 



