158 
September, 1890. 
/ ORC H R R D /uNoi' GPl R DE N \ 
The Effect of London Purple and Paris 
Green upon Peach Foliage. 
An exceedingly interesting and instruc- 
tive pamphlet upon this subject is Bulletin 
No. XVIII of the Agricultural Experiment 
Station of Cornell University College of Ag- 
riculture. It says, “The success which has 
attended the arsenical sprays in combatting 
the curculio upon the cherry and plum, has 
led to its trial upon peach trees. London 
purple appears to have been most generally 
used in these trials, because this material 
has been strongly recommended during the 
last few years as preferable to Paris green. 
The advantages which London purple pos- 
sesses over Paris green are its cheapness, 
and the tineuess and lightness of the mater- 
ial. allowing it to remain longer in suspen- 
sion in water. But the use of London pur- 
ple upon the peach has often resulted in 
great injury to the foliage, and sometimes 
to the young shoots.” 
With these conclusions in view the Sta- 
tion entered upon a series of experiments 
under varied conditions extending over two 
seasons, and so far as the experiments were 
comparable the experiences of the two sea- 
sons were found to coincide. We have not 
the space here to give any of the details of 
the work, which may be readily learned by 
anyone who will take the trouble to obtain 
the pamphlet, and can only give the gener- 
al summary of results which seem to agree 
very nearly with the results of Professor 
Cook's experiments of the same nature in 
Michigan, last year. 
1. Peach trees are very susceptible to in- 
jury from arsenical sprays. 
2. London purple is much more harmful 
to peach trees than Paris green, and it 
should never be used upon them in any 
manner. 
8. Injury is more liable to occur upon full 
grown foliage and hardened shoots than 
upon young foliage and soft shoots. 
4. The immunity of the young growth is 
due to its waxy covering. 
5. Injury late in the season is more ap- 
parent than early in the season, because of 
the cessation of growth. 
6. Injury from the use of London purple 
may be permanent and irreparable. 
7. The length of time which the poison 
has been mixed appears to exercise no in- 
fluence. 
8. London purple contains much soluble 
arsenic (in our samples nearly 40 percent.), 
and this arsenic is the cause of the injury 
to peach foliage. 
9. A coarse spray appears to be more in- 
jurious than a fine one. 
10. A rain following the application does 
not appear to augment the injury. 
11. Meteorological conditions do not ap- 
pear to influence results. 
12. Spraying the peach with water on a 
bright and hot day does not scorch the 
foliage. 
13. Paris green, in a fine spray, at the rate 
of one pound to 300 gallons of water, did 
not injure the trees. Probably one pound 
to 350 gallons is always safe. 
September Work. 
The principal work with us this month is 
to gather our fruit, pack, and send it to 
market. When apples are to be shipped 
they should be packed in barrels, and this 
requires some care and attention. The bar- 
rels should be new and the apples packed 
against the head that will be opened when 
received. Select for the first and second 
tier of fruit those of good size, and lay them 
down with the stems next the head. The 
second tier may be put in the same way, 
but after that fill them in closely any way 
that they will fit the best; fill over-full, press 
the apples down with a press, and head up 
the barrel. Put hut one kind in each barrel 
and label them with the name of the varie- 
ty on the haad. The apples should be all 
sound and not too ripe to ship. It is not nec- 
essary to give ventilation as is often done 
for they will keep as well, if not better, 
without it. The poorer grade of apples may 
be made into cider for vinegar. At a home 
market one can often sell small lots of dif- 
ferent varieties in baskets, and generally to 
a good advantage. It is poor policy to mix 
culls with good fruit as the latter will alone 
bring more than all the others when mixed 
together. This year we think it will pay to 
save apples in every way, by making vine- 
gar. evaporating and canning, as there ap- 
pears to be a general failure of the crop 
everywhere. 
Now is a good time to prepare for setting 
out fruit trees. The ground should be got 
in readiness, the varieties should be deter- 
mined upon and the number of each kind 
required. Young nursery stock should still 
be kept clean but not stimulated to extra 
growth by excessive cultivation or they will 
not endure the cold winter. Do all the fall 
work possible now and there will be less 
hurry in the spring, but do not take up trees 
until after a frost, and then if the leaves are 
not all off they should be stripped off or the 
trees will be worthless. — J. Stayman. 
Digging and Shipping Nursery Stock 
Too Early in the Fall. 
All of our acknowledged and best author- 
ities in horticulture tell us that fall is the 
best season for transplanting fruit and for- 
est trees, shrubs and vines. The respected 
and revered A. J. Downing in his work 
“Fruits and Fruit Trees of America” says, 
“All physiologists, however, agree that the 
best season for transplanting deciduous trees 
is in Autumn, directly after the fall of the 
leaf.” But neither he nor any other author- 
ity that I know of, advises us to accomplish 
the 1 ‘fall of the leaf” by a savage stripping, 
or rather tearing off, of the foliage long be- 
fore nature has given the first signal, even of 
a light frost, that the period of rest is at hand. 
The young white rootlets are still at work 
drawing nourishment from the soil, the lab- 
oratories of the leaves are still converting 
the sap into the proper elements of nutrition, 
and returning these to be stored away for 
new life and growth, when nature shall 
awake again in the following Spring. Their 
I task is not yet accomplished, their work is 
not yet done, but the “tree dealer” has no r 
time to wait for them. He is in a hurry, 
and the grower who has hitherto carefully 
watched over his nurslings, must do the 
dealer’s bidding, or he will see the coveted 
order go to someone else, who cares less 
about the further welfare of his products. 
The “tree butchers” as we may well call 
them, in this case, are set to work, down 
come the leaves, out or off come the ten- 
der. immature little roots, the delivery is 
made, and the dollars of the deluded plant- 
er jingle merrily in the pockets of the deal- 
er and the grower (with the lion’s share in 
those of the former, by way of parenthesis). 
The poor trees suffer, but who cares; they 
are paid for. This picture may seem over- 
drawn, and perhaps it is in many cases, but 
when I see catalogues and circulars, an- 
nouncing that trees and stock will be ready 
for shipping by September 20th, from sec- r* 
tions where the first light frosts can hardly 
be expected before the middle of October, 
or even later, I cannot help having grave 
doubts as to the success of stock, which 
must be dug a month or more too soon in 
order to have it ready for shipping by the 
time announced. And what is most to be 
regetted, it seems that this abuse, for I can- 
not call it otherwise, is growing worse from 
year to year, and I think it were high time 
that a halt should be called and a stand 
taken against a practice, which can ulti- 
mately only result in ruining our fall trade 
entirely. 
Ten years ago, speaking from personal 
experience, it was a rare occurrence that 
we were asked to ship a grape vine before 
the 10th to 15th of October, and then such 
shipments were generally requested only 
for northern localities. Now, requests to 
ship plants by October 1st are an every day 
matter, at that season of the year, and re- 
quests to ship by September 20tli are not un- 
common. When we refuse to entertain » 
such orders, we are simply told that dealers 
demand their stock thus early, and if we do 
not want to fill the order, they can and do 
obtain their plants elsewhere. There may 
be points of advantage in these unseason- 
able early deliveries that I do not know of, 
or that I fail to understand. If so, it would 
be pertinent to the subject of our discussion 
to hear them explained by those who follow 
and favor this practice. 
I am well aware that no fixed date can 
be named when we should commence our 
digging and shipping in the fall, especially 
no date that would be applicable to the 
length and breadth of our country, A date 
that would be seasonable in Minnesota or 
Wisconsin would be highly unseasonable in 
Tennessee, or in Missouri even. I am well 
aware that a currant bush or a cherry tree 
can be dug and shipped at a date when a 
peach tree or a wild goose plum would be 
ruined by the operation, and I would no; ^ 
wish to be understood as indiscriminately 
condemning all early fall digging. But 
what I would and do protest against is the 
practice of an indiscriminate, too early dig- 
ging and shipping in the fall, regardless of 
