140 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
June, 1919 
“Lady Bugs” Beneficial. 
In the Market Grower’s -Jour- 
nal of April 1, P. H. Bateman, 
of Camden County, N. J., speaks 
of “lady bugs” eating liis cucum- 
bers. There are several bugs that 
eat cucumbers but not the “lady 
bugs.” The true “lady bug” eats 
nothing but plant lice. The “lady 
bug” is not a bug at all but a 
beetle that is the most helpful in- 
sect we know anything about. The 
most common kinds are orange 
with black spots and red with 
black spots. There are others that 
are black with two red spots. The 
government thought so much of 
the “lady bugs” that they im- 
ported some from China, propa- 
gated them and distributed them 
for the control of scale. If farm- 
ers would only study nature a lit- 
tle and find out what bugs and 
birds help them, they would be 
better off. 
Neal Demarest, N. J. 
A Good Spray Pump Wanted 
Q. “Kindly give me the name 
of a good spray pump for home 
garden use. Compressed air spray- 
er desired.” 
Ans. There is no good com- 
pressed air sprayer either big or 
little. The large orchard sprayers 
geared to the wheels of the wagon 
were much in favor at one time 
but have been wholly discarded. 
Other types having compression 
tanks, etc., are also on the discard 
or on the way. Most of the small 
compressed air sprayers are so 
cheaply built that they develop 
leaks before the first season is 
over. These pumps usually con- 
sist of a metal cylinder, a bicycle 
air pump and a short hose. The 
container is partly filled with 
spray material, the top clamped 
down and pressure obtained by 
operating the little air pump. By 
hard labor about 50 lbs. pressure 
can be secured, most of which is 
lost before the tank is empty. 
The most practical and efficient 
type of pump for home garden use 
is the “bucket” pump, a small di- 
rect action pump set in a pail and 
provided with clamps, foot rest, 
etc. Usually about six feet of hose 
is furnished with the pump which 
is enough only for vegetables, cur- 
rant bushes, etc. For spraying 
small trees and for economical 
work in the garden an extra sec- 
tion should lie added. 
For orchard use nothing smaller 
than a barrel pump should be 
used. 
The Spray Gun 
Prof. R. B. Cruickshank, Ohio 
State University 
Perhaps the one outstanding 
saving effected during the past 
season was by the use of the spray 
gun. The spray gun happened in 
the nick of time and proved to be 
a godsend to the hard pressed 
grower who had sufficient pioneer- 
ing spirit to buy one even in the 
face of what seemed to be a big 
price. The spray gun has definite- 
ly proven its value, to the fruit 
grower with a power sprayer, in 
three fundamental ways — in the 
saving of time, in the saving of 
labor, and in the saving of spray 
material. 
People are usually slow to adopt 
new practices, especially when 
those practices are opposed to cur- 
rent conception, but the spray 
gun has been taken up by growers 
all over the country in a brief 
time. It came, it was seen, it con- 
quered. 
Of course, doubts and objec- 
tions were advanced. In the first, 
place, some said that it could not 
do the amount and quality of the 
work claimed for it. It sounded 
too good. 
One objection raised was that it 
would not force the spray into the 
calyx at the time of the first cod- 
dling moth application. AVe had 
been using angle nozzles and la- 
boring under the supposition that 
the material must be sprayed into 
the blossom cup with considerable 
force. Probably that is correct 
with the ordinary nozzle, but the 
spray gun seems able to diffuse 
such a fog of spray throughout the 
tree that plenty of poison is lodg- 
ed in the place where it will be 
most unhealthy for the apple- 
worm. Answers to a question- 
naire which I addressed to a large 
number of growers recently were 
practically unanimous in that they 
had fewer worms than usual. 
Another point of practicability 
raised was the possible injury to 
the fruit and leaves, due to very 
high pressure used. There have 
been but few instances of any such 
injury, and in all cases this has 
been traced to the fact that the 
gun was held held close up and 
the spray dashed into the foliage 
on “high.” If the operator is 
working rapidly and does not care 
to shut off the gun too much, lie 
should endeavor to spray the low- 
er side of the tree at some dis- 
tance, gradually going higher as 
he approaches the tree. 
The matter of the amount of 
spray has also been answered in a 
way complimentary to the spray 
gun. Except in the early work 
before a man becomes accustomed 
to it, the usual answer is that the 
gun uses less material than the 
nozzles. Some growers have ex- 
perienced an economy in spraying 
even fairly small trees. 
I believe that where lack of con- 
trol of orchard pests has been ex- 
perienced, the cause may be as- 
signed to application at a time just 
aside from the critical one, to the 
use of too low a pressure or to 
