324 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



practically useless. Now I agree with all that has been said as to 

 Bordeaux mixture. I am not pretending that Bordeaux mixture is 

 useless, and I think as the outcome of this meeting we could form a 

 small committee that would go into this — all those interested in the fungi 

 and those who are chemists — and they could recommend to the fruit 

 growers something very much better than is used at present. Those who 

 have read Mr. Spencer Pickering's able paper on Bordeaux mixture must 

 see there is something radically wrong with the Bordeaux mixtures on 

 the market and the way they are made. I think the failure of the 

 Bordeaux mixtures is due entirely to the way they are made and the 

 copper that is sold. There is one point which Mr. Massee mentioned — 

 what I call the wetability of fluid on the leaves. I agree with Mr. 

 Salmon that the two leaves thrown on the screens were not well sprayed. 

 I think the lumps should be much finer and more equally distributed 

 over the leaf. I should suggest to those interested to try experiments 

 with different gums. I have sprayed little plates of mica and also 

 celluloid discs and examined those microscopically, and we have got the 

 greatest wetability with certain solution of gums. We have not exhausted 

 them. We shall go on trying various gums, and I have no doubt a 

 gum of some kind will give the greatest wetability that is possible to be 

 obtained. I should like to thank Mr. Massee for his paper, and say that 

 I support very many of the points he has made, though there are some 

 from which I strongly dissent. 



Mr. Crook : I am very much interested in this question of spraying. 

 It gave me much pleasure to hear the able papers read this morning, and, 

 like Mr. Getting, I believe the success of fruit-growing depends on using 

 the applications earlier. In point of fact, I have used a well-known wash 

 for over ten years, and I have always found that in using that wash, if I 

 used it somewhat weakly before any trace of the insect appeared, it was 

 easy to keep the plant clean by one or two applications during the year ; 

 but, unfortunately, the majority of people allow a crop of insects to 

 congregate, or wait till they can see them, especially aphides of all kinds, 

 and then they begin to apply any kind of wash they like ; they apply it 

 very strongly. Like most of these things, as with a doctor's physic, it 

 depends how much you have and how strong it is, whether it will kill 

 you or not ; so with these washes ; it depends upon how strong you use 

 them, and when you use them, whether they kill the insect, or leaf, or 

 both. I am quite convinced from close observation that if any of these 

 washes are used early on soft vegetation before a crop of insects comes, 

 and used about twice, you will keep the plants clean through the 

 season, whereas if you once allow the crop to present itself you meet 

 with a series of difficulties the whole of the year. I am also prepared 

 to say that as regards amateurs and small growers, of whom there 

 are now many — and this Society has to study the amateur side of the 

 question — the sooner we can teach people who have not much 

 knowledge of horticulture the benefits of using these insecticides, or 

 home-made washes, whatever you like, weakly in the early stages the 

 better. If the insecticide be applied before the insect is seen, and a 

 couple of times, you ward off the attack naturally before it has become 

 severe. 



