October, 1917 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
25 
Facts and Figures on Spraying. 
Prof. R. H. Roberts, well known 
to all who attend our conventions, 
puts in his spare time during 
spring and summer conducting 
spraying demonstrations. Mr. 
Roberts reports on the results ob- 
tained in one orchard in Fond du 
Lae county as follows : 
“Regarding the report of our 
spraying results at the Thomas 
Roach farm the fruit has but late- 
ly been sold so that we could defi- 
nitely sum up our results. 
“From these trees which we 
helped Mr. Roach to spray we ob- 
tained eighty-five per cent of the 
first grade fruit, twelve per cent 
of the second grade, and three per 
cent culls, which sold at an aver- 
age price of $1.14 per bushel. 
From the trees which were un- 
1 sprayed, there was no first grade 
fruit, but thirty-seven per cent 
was second grade, the balance or 
sixty-three per cent being culls. 
“The average price of this fruit 
was twenty-four cents a bushel. 
It is also to be noted that the un- 
sprayed trees had a smaller crop 
than the others, due to smaller- 
sized fruits and the dropping of 
a large per cent of the crop due to 
apple scab. On the basis men- 
tioned, however, we would have 
the gain of ninety cents ' per 
bushel, due to spraying. The cost 
including labor and material, was 
sixteen cents a bushel, or a net 
gain of seventy-four cents. The 
cost per bushel was high owing 
I to a light yield as the cost per 
tree was about twenty-four cents. 
These figures apply to the variety, 
Gano. 
“These results are due almost 
entirely to the spraying which Mr. 
Roach did while we were not 
present, as our spray plat includ- 
ed but a. small portion of the 
trees on which we gathered data. 
The season gave one of the worst 
infections of apple scab that has 
been known, so we feel quite 
pleased with the results which 
we have obtained this year and 
feel confident that these can 
lie duplicated by any farmer who 
follows carefully the time of ap- 
plication and the use of proper 
materials. 
“The spray used this year was 
the commercial lime sulphur solu- 
tion, one gallon to forty gallons 
of water, to which was added one 
and one-half pounds of powdered 
arsenate of lead to each fifty gal- 
lons of water. 
“The applications were made as 
follows : 
“(1) Just after the blossom 
buds separated in the cluster so 
as to permit the covering of their 
entire surfaces. This was just 
previous to the blossoms opening 
(2) Just after the blossoms fell. 
(3) Two weeks after the second 
spray. (4) About the first of 
August. ’ ’ 
Results in 1917. 
These facts and figures on 
spraying were submitted by Prof. 
Roberts just one year ago, but no 
opportunity was found to present 
them seasonably until now. In 
reference to a recent inquiry 
Prof. Roberts writes under date 
of Sept. 24th as follows: 
“The results this season have 
been very similar to those of last, 
and also quite satisfactory. Two 
points of especial interest have 
been developed in checking over 
results. The first is the apparent 
failure of spraying to entirely 
control a bad infestation of cur- 
culio on apples. It would appear 
that in cases of other infestation, 
sanitary measures as cultivation 
or hogs would be needed to insure 
clean fruit. This conclusion 
could be based on the fact that at 
one of our demonstration orch- 
ards this year we entirely con- 
trolled apple scab, but had con- 
siderable curculio work on the 
fruit.” 
“The second point is the ap- 
proximate completeness with 
which we have controlled apple 
scab. An illustration of this 
would be the results at Swartz 
Brothers, Waukesha, this year. I 
mention this because that is the 
only place where we have made 
definite counts of sprayed and un- 
sprayed trees there was an even 
sparayed trees there was an even 
100% of infected fruit and 74% 
of the fruits were so badly 
scabbed as to be worthless for 
market. On the sprayed trees 
89% of the fruits were free from 
infection, Vo% were severely 
scabbed, 2% had sufficient infec- 
tion to place them in second grade 
fruit and the remaining 8% had 
infections ranging from mere dots 
in size to Vs of an inch in diam- 
eter. ’ ’ 
“The cost has been slightly 
higher this year owing to more 
expensive chemicals and labor- 
charges. The expense of the 
above work was .091 a bushel. 
This is lower than the average 
owing to the good yield of fruit 
on the sprayed trees, the range of 
expense being from 6 to 16c a 
bushel owing to the yield. The 
material used for the demonstra- 
tion work was lime sulphur and 
arsenate of lead the same as last 
year.” 
Plant tulips, hyacinths, narcis- 
sus and crocus now for spring 
blooming. A good list of varie- 
ties will be found on p. 14 of our 
Annual Report. 
