December, 1918 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
39 
the same purpose in applying a 
liquid spray that 1 he duster does 
in putting on the dry material. 
Many growers have bought spray- 
guns in the last two years think- 
ing that by so doing they could 
get along with less help and still 
do as much spraying. 
We purchased two guns of a 
well-known make for use in the 
orchards this season. We have 
about 60 acres of 11-year-old 
apples and pears to spray. There 
are two sprayers on the farm, and 
we planned to use one gun for 
each machine, thereby saving the 
time of two men. 
The spray-guns were first tried 
out on a block of 11 acres. It 
looked at that time as though a 
considerable amount of material 
was being wasted, more so than 
with a regular spray-rod, due to 
the larger volume of material be- 
ing applied. On the next block 
sprayed a comparison was made 
of the amounts required per tree 
with the regular rod of two 
nozzles each, and with the gun. 
This block consisted of mixed va- 
rieties and was divided as nearly 
as possible into halves, each half 
containing over 300 trees. For 
the dormant spray the amount of 
spray liquid required per tree for 
the spray-gun was 1.5 gallons and 
for the rod one gallon. For the 
pink bud stage 1.9 gallons per tree 
were required for the gun and 1.4 
gallons per tree for the rod. These 
were the averages for over 300 
trees. Both of these sprayings 
show a larger amount of material 
used by the gun than the rod, an 
item of considerable moment 
when several thousand trees are to 
be sprayed. 
While it took more material 
early in the season with the gun 
than with the rod our later spray- 
ings showed just the reverse. The 
trees were then in full foliage, 
which kept the spray from being 
blown away. The average amount 
per tree for the next two spray- 
ings was two gallons per tree with 
the rod and 1.6 gallons per tree 
with tire gun. While less mate- 
rial was used, which would seem 
to be an advantage, we could not 
do as good a job with the gun as 
with the rod. When using the 
spray-gun it is impossible to 
spray against the wind, while 
with the ordinary spray-rod a 
good job can often be done 
against the wind if it is not blow- 
ing too hard. With angle nozzles 
on a spray-rod the tree can be 
covered in a thorough manner; 
the fruits must be hit from all 
sides. Unblemished apples cannot 
be produced where curculio are 
abundant unless completely cov- 
ered with spray on all sides. If 
one side of the apple is not cov- 
ered this exposed side is liable to 
be stung. Our difficulty seemed 
to be to hit the underside of the 
apple, and we found it could not 
be done with the gun. With the 
angle nozzles it is possible to shoot 
up into the tree from underneath, 
thus making it easy to hit the 
apples on the under side. 
After giving our guns a 
thorough trying out, we laid them 
aside in favor of the slower but 
more thorough rods. Some thin- 
ning has been done in the block 
where our test of the rod versus 
the gun was made, and we have 
found a larger proportion of cur- 
culio-stung fruits where the spray- 
gun was used. — H. B. H. in Rural 
New Yorker. 
Squash and pumpkins must be 
kept warm and dry if they are to 
be stored until late in the winter. 
The Orchard Fertilization Ques- 
tion Summarized 
A most confusing situation, 
both for the orchardist and for 
the fertilizer man, is found in the 
conflicting fertility recommenda- 
tions. made by the various Experi- 
ment Stations. 
A number of states have unhes- 
itatingly recommended the use of 
the fertilizer in the orchard, 
others have hedged, and one or 
two still maintain (though with 
waning ardor) that fertilizer is 
not needed in orchard manage- 
ment. 
In view of the above, Mr. Frank 
H. Ballou's article in the Coun- 
try Gentleman under date of Sep- 
tember 21st, summarizing a num- 
ber of orchard fertility practices, 
is especially welcome and valu- 
able. The article while dealing 
mainly with the relative merits of 
clean cultivation versus sod orch- 
ards throws much direct light up- 
on the possible causes for varia- 
tions in fertilizer recommenda- 
tions emanating from different ex- 
periment stations. 
Mr. Ballou's summary is as fol- 
lows : 
Consider, therefore the result of 
orchard culture and fertilization 
experiments on rugged land well 
and widely represented by that of 
Southern Ohio, the following 
propositions are justified by work 
both finished and in progress : 
1. That on orchard areas 
abounding generously in organic 
or nitrogenous matter both the 
tillage-cover-erop and the grass 
mulch methods — where each plan 
is faithfully and conscientiously 
employed — will produce excellent 
results without manure or com- 
mercial plant food. 
2. That where the soil, although 
(Continued on page 45) 
