CONFERENCE ON SPRAYING OF FRUIT TREES. 



325 



The Secretary : It is now just upon one o'clock, and before Colonel 

 Warde bids you good-bye I have to say this : Colonel Warde has been 

 very kind to come here and take the Chair. We all thank him heartily. 



Colonel Warde : I am very much obliged to you indeed that you 

 think it worth while to say anything to me in the way of gratitude for 

 taking the Chair, but I am sure, after the most interesting and able 

 papers given us this morning by Mr. Massee and by Mr. Getting, we shall 

 all, at any rate a great many of us, go away wiser than we came. For 

 myself, as a layman, I listened with the greatest interest to what has been 

 said, and I hope that I may have received a few wrinkles that may be 

 very useful to me in the future ; but, as Mr. Wilks has reminded you, I 

 am obliged to put a time limit, at least as far as I am concerned, because 

 I have to go to the House of Commons. (Applause.) 



The Secretary : There were one or two questions asked of Mr. 

 Massee which he would like to reply to without raising any discussion 

 afterwards, or else we shall not get any luncheon. I think you would 

 like to listen to Mr. Massee's reply to those questions. 



Mr. G. Massee : There was one that was raised by Mr. Bunyard in 

 connection with nicotine. Nicotine has no bearing on fungi, so that 

 I cannot criticize it. I have never used nicotine ; I do not know what 

 its efficacy or otherwise is in connection with fungi. Of course with 

 insects undoubtedly it is very different, but I can offer no opinion what- 

 ever on that. Another point perhaps I am taking out of Mr. Salmon's 

 hands ; but he mentioned the American wash. I happened to put the 

 pamphlet in my pocket, and I have used the wash simply out of curiosity 

 to find whether it would or would not scorch peach foliage. The 

 compound is this : 10 lb. flowers of sulphur and 15 lb. of stone lime 

 dissolved in 50 gallons of water ; 9 or 10 gallons of water, more or 

 less, are added to the lime and sulphur to dissolve it and to bring it 

 up to the boiling point. Then dilute it to 50 gallons. The heat of 

 the slaking is sufficient to bring about combination with the sulphur. 

 If you actually boil it, or even have hot water instead of cold, the damage 

 may be rather serious. I simply sprayed to try its effect on the leaves, 

 not its action on fungus — that I took for granted. I used the most 

 delicate leaves I could suggest, that is, peach, and I found there was no 

 damage done whatever — not the slightest. I thoroughly coated the leaves 

 over, of course intentionally, with a thick washing, and repeated it several 

 times. 



Question: Where can we get that pamphlet without picking your 

 pocket ? 



Mr. G. Massee : The American Department of Agriculture, Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, Circular No. 1. 



The only other point is in connection with winter work. Admittedly, 

 if you had no fungus spores you could have no disease. I suppose we 

 are all agreed on that. The disease does originate from spores. Mr. 

 Salmon said it was not quite practicable to prune away the dead branches. 

 I have said that if you pruned away practically all the dead branches 

 then there could be no beginning. The fungus would be there in a 

 certain proper proportion, to keep up the balance of nature perhaps, but 

 not sufficient to form an epidemic ; we do not want an epidemic, that is 



