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Vol. LXIII, No. 2814, NEW YORK, JANUARY 2, 1904. * »t per year. 
WHAT POWER FOR SPRAYING OUTFITS? 
What Sized Orchards Will Justify Power? 
How many fruit trees should a farmer have in order 
to justify him in buying a power sprayerf How much 
work should a man hove in order to pay interest on the 
cost of such an outfit, and from your experience and 
observation what kind of power would you buy T 
Study the Power in the Field. 
1 should say if one has five to 10 acres or more of 
fruit he should have some kind of power sprayer. 
What he would best purchase would depend upon size 
of his orchard trees, number of acres and also how 
much money he could spare to put into a rig. It is 
useless to attempt to spray any considerable amount 
by hand power. If he only has a few acres a good 
power rig will be a profitable investment. In orchards 
of any considerable size the best, no matter what its 
first cost may be, will be found to be the cheapest. 
There are quite a number of rigs on the market, all 
claimed to be “the best and only,” making it difficult 
to give advice that different growers may follow. As 
conditions vary I think 
the “best and only” thing 
for the grower to do is to 
select a few styles that 
seem to suit his ideas. 
Then go and see them all 
in actual operation, not 
simply go to horticultural 
meetings where they 
squirt a little clear water 
through the nozzles, but 
go to see them roughing it 
in actual work in the or¬ 
chards. Money and time 
expended this way will be 
a good investment even if 
it is half the price of the 
rig. All the manufactur¬ 
ers will tell the grower 
what he wants. What the 
grower should really know 
however is what he don’t 
want, and a personal in¬ 
spection of machines in 
actual operation is the 
only way he can learn 
this. He should bear in 
mind that the soldier who 
wears the handsomest uni¬ 
form is not always the 
soldier who can stand the most forced marches. 
Handsome is that handsome does is a maxim to be re¬ 
membered when buying spraying outfits. 
Pennsylvania. a. i. loop. 
F. P. 1 /ergon's Opinion. 
It is not so much the quantity of trees that make it 
necessary to have a power sprayer as it is their size 
and height. Here in central Ohio a good hand pump 
is quite satisfactory, until the trees are 10 years old, 
after this a power sprayer does the work very much 
better and faster, reaching the tops of the trees with¬ 
out straining or getting out of humor. Very much 
depends on the man. If the right man has an orchard 
of even five acres of fairly good trees and varieties— 
trees so high that good work cannot be done with a 
hand pump—it is quite possible the better results in 
a single crop over a bad job of spraying would pay 
for the power outfit. The man that does his work 
best succeeds best. I think that about everything is 
in favor of gasoline power for spraying purposes. En¬ 
gine costs less, costs less to run it, does not require 
so much of an engineer, not so dangerous, power can 
be got up in a few moments, one and one-half horse¬ 
power is all that is necessary for spraying purposes. 
Ohio. F. P. VERGON. 
Steam Power Satisfactory. 
The number of trees one has to spray to justify 
buying a power sprayer I can hardly answer. I have 
thought that if there were orchards enough in a 
neighborhood or town to warrant the use of a power 
sprayer it would be best for some one to buy a power 
sprayer and make it his business to spray for the 
whole neighborhood. To make the spray properly and 
to apply it economically requires some experience, 
also to run a power sprayer. If there were 100 or¬ 
chards of 100 trees each it would pay, I think, for 
some intelligent person to buy a power sprayer and 
do the spraying for all. He would soon learn to mix 
the ingredients properly and use the sprayer econom¬ 
ically and expeditiously, the same as parties who 
buy a thrasher and go about and thrash the grain for 
a neighborhood or town. For a single farmer to in¬ 
vest in a power sprayer I would say he should have 
from 300 to 500 trees, otherwise a barrel pump 
sprayer would answer. There are those made now 
which work easily and with a little experience can be 
made to accomplish a large amount of spraying. Now 
that spraying has become a necessity orchard tree3 
should not be planted to spread 30 feet and 40 feet 
high. Plant close, keep tops down small so as to be 
easily covered even with a hand power barrel pump, 
and a steam power pump will hardly be needed for 
spraying apple trees. edwin hoyt. 
Prefers Compressed Air. 
As to what form of power is best I would recom¬ 
mend sorpe type of machine using compressed air. 
From our experience this type of machine is simpler 
in operation, and more satisfactory than gasoline. 
These machines are operated upon a very simple and 
effective principle. A sprocket is attached to the rear 
wheel and a chain connects this with an air pump 
which forces air into a small storage tank or re¬ 
ceiver. In driving to the orchard a pressure upwards 
of 150 pounds is readily formed, and this gives a 
steady even pressure, a finely divided spray and a 
uniform flow and distribution. In the Spring the 
ground is usually soft, and the load should be as light 
as possible. An equipment of this kind will add about 
300 pounds additional to the load. The lightest type 
of gasoline engine with which I am acquainted 
weighs double this amount. Some of them are also 
upright in position and tend to make the load top- 
heavy, and are inconvenient to use on steep hillsides. 
In my experience the gasoline engine requires a good 
solid foundation or base to rest upon. It is very apt 
to prove whimsical and go on a strike almost any 
time on a spray tank. Steam sprayers I never used. 
The second question, how many fruit trees should 
a farmer have in order to justify him in buying a 
power sprayer, is not easily answered. I can reply to 
this best, perhaps, by indicating the capacity of this 
type of machine, and its comparison with a hand 
pump will indicate its profit, and hence enable him to 
answer for himself, as to which he can use to better 
advantage. Last Spring the horticultural department 
of the Iowa Experiment Station purchased a sprayer 
which is operated upon compressed air principles al¬ 
ready described. A pressure of 80 to 100 pounds did 
excellent and rapid work. A part of the time the 
ground was soft, and it was necessary to attach the 
mud claws to prevent the wheels slipping when the 
pressure ran high. The orchard in which this ma¬ 
chine was used contained 
70 acres, the original 
planting being 25 years 
old, and planted two rods 
apart. About 10 years 
later the interspaces were 
filled in one way with ap¬ 
ple and plum trees. The 
season was an unusually 
wet one and the land hilly, 
and under these conditions 
our best record was 12 
acres per day of 12 hours* 
work. Two men did the 
work, one man driving 
and operating one line of 
hose. The operators usual¬ 
ly took a position on the 
tank, though they show 
another position in the 
picture. Fig. 1, in order to 
bring out the details of the 
machine as much as pos¬ 
sible. Both sides were 
sprayed at the same time. 
Sufficient power was main¬ 
tained once the tanks were 
charged in driving from 
tree to tree to do the work. 
The five-barrel tank prov¬ 
ed too heavy for the soft ground and in a hilly coun¬ 
try. Were we purchasing again I should secure a 
three-barrel capacity tank instead. 
I believe that a compressed air sprayer can cover 
from one-half to two-thirds more ground than a hand 
machine, and do it much better. The spray is more 
finely divided, which increases its efilciency, hence 
requires less material, and the ground is covered very 
much more rapidly. I should estimate that the grow¬ 
er of 20 acres, or perhaps less, would profit by the 
expenditure in this type of machine. a. t. erwtn. 
Iowa Experiment Station. 
Thinks Well of Gas. 
I should advise anyone owning 500 fruit trees that 
are 10 years old to buy a power sprayer. Up to that 
age one can do quite effective work with a hand 
pump, but it is hard work to keep the pressure up to 
do best work. I have decided that the power for me 
to use on the slopes here is either compressed air or 
gas. In practice we want as light a load to draw as 
possible, and freedom from bother with our power. 
Time is very valuable when spraying needs to be 
done, and an expert machinist may not be at hand. 
tr 
AN AIR SPRAYER AT WORK IN AN IOWA ORCHARD. Fig 1. 
