CONFERENCE ON FRTJIT GROWING. 



This should be followed by a spring dressing of Bordeaux mixture as 

 soon as the blossom has dropped off. 



I have found great benefit this season from having used the sulphate ; 

 the trees that were dressed had very superior fruit and foliage to those left 

 undressed. 



In using the winter solution it is necessary to wet all the branches 

 of the tree, or some of the spores of the fungus will grow and quickly 

 spread over the young foliage in the spring. 



White Mildew. — Last year many Apples were attacked by a white 

 mildew which covered the fruit and looked like a beautiful bloom ; but on 

 applying your nose or a microscope to it you at once discovered its true 

 nature. Fruit stored with this mildew on it would not keep any length 

 of time. 



Floivers of sulphur put on with a knapsack blower seems the best 

 remedy. 



Mussel Scale and Oyster Scale. — Mussel scale is the cause of much 

 damage to many of our orchards. It gives the trees a stunted and 

 miserable appearance. I think the only time to check or kill this scale 

 is when the young have left the parent scale in the spring. I have also 

 found Strawson's Vaporite very successful. I mixed it with grafting clay 

 and used it as a thick mixture, putting it on with a whitewash brush so 

 as to form a thick coating over the affected part of the tree. 



For Oyster Scale — on Gooseberry, Plum, and Nut trees — I have found 

 McDougall's wash the most effective remedy. 



Bed Spider. — Gooseberry trees often look yellow or reddish-yellow 

 when the buds are bursting in the spring, and if examined closely on a 

 sunny day they will be found to be covered with red spider, which have 

 been dormant during the winter. This is the time to kill them ; it is so 

 much easier to syringe the tree effectually before the leaf is out, when 

 some will be on the under side of the leaves and some on the upper, 

 A sunny day should be chosen. 



For red spider on Apple trees this wash should be reduced to : 



Liver of sulphur 1§ lb. 



Soft soap . . . 4 lbs. 



The stronger wash will damage the leaves. 



Gooseberry Caterpillar. — This is a very well-known pest and should 

 be destroyed as soon as it is noticed, for if the first attack is not dealt 

 with, because there are only a few, the caterpillars will quickly run their 

 course and come again as sawflies in about three weeks. In this way you 

 get a very bad attack when perhaps you are too busy to attend to it. 



Hellebore powder is the best remedy, put on with a knapsack blower. 

 The operator should not inhale it, or it will make his nose bleed. I often 

 see hellebore powder recommended for killing other caterpillars, but it 

 will not hurt anything but the Gooseberry caterpillar. 



Birds. — All the tit tribe, woodpeckers, wrens, tree creepers, &c, live prin- 

 cipally on insects and their eggs, and should be sacred to the fruit-grower. 



Liver of sulphur 

 Soft soap 

 Water . 



4 lbs. 

 4 lbs. 

 100 galls, 



D 



