THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
171 
190(5. 
sulphur; hut we knew better, and the search for the 
truly economical insecticides led to whale-oil soaps, 
kerosene and petroleum dilutions, caustic soda, limoid, 
with a dozen patent compounds along the route, till 
we reached the point of beginning. As long as one 
vearly application of lime-sulphur sufficCSi very few 
large jobs will be done with two applications of any 
costlier insecticide, even though there be no cooking 
or sediment troubles. The cooking problem solves itself 
when an individual will properly equip himself, or will 
co-operate with neighbors in the purchase of a boiler, or 
will use a self-boiled mixture. 
Locate a cooking plant as near the orchard as you can 
get heat and water. I have seen lime- 
sulphur cooked at double strength, then 
carted four miles and diluted with cold 
water and applied effectively; but there 
is no economy in the plan except in sit¬ 
uations as at a creamery, where steam is 
available, and mixture can be carted back 
to the farm without any extra expense. 
I have seen this work well. Sediment 
difficulties make further concentration (in¬ 
advisable. Elevation is the cure for 
loading and straining expense. Cook be¬ 
neath your water supply, yet high enough 
to run the completed mixture into the 
spray carts without pailing. One compen¬ 
sation of our side hill farms develops 
when this is possible. I have loaded 
cheaply also by the use of a galvanized 
sewer tube pump. Substitute rubber for 
the leather cone, however. Elevated plat¬ 
forms are essential if the ground be 
level. Set a number of barrels on tiie 
platform, connecting each by jock nuts 
with a common outlet, at the end of 
which a gate valve or plug is necessary. 
To prevent lime from settling in the out¬ 
let make plugs long enough to fill the 
outlet of each barrel and reach to the top. The water 
supply may be separate, or the barrels may be fed 
through the outlet pipe if there is pressure. Where the 
location has been chosen close to a well, elevation of 
the well pump or a higher suspension for the wheel will 
usually answer. Where steam is used at high pressure 
it may solve the elevation problem through an ejector 
or a steam pump. If there must be pailing or hand 
pumping let the man who tends the cooking do it; he 
has the easy end anyway, and the time of the whole 
spraying gang counts only while the pump is on the 
firing line; hence arrange for rapid filling. 
Steam is the ideal heat, but a 60-gallon cauldron well 
inclosed will cook the mixture for 400 gallons of spray 
daily, and one man can serve several cookers. Gal¬ 
vanized iron resists the action well, and a 100-gallon 
tank costs about $7, but as the fire will strike the bot¬ 
tom only the fire surface is not the greatest. All steam 
is alike except with respect to pressure, and pressure 
is of little consequence if the volume of steam is great. 
PEACH TREE AFFECTED WITH YELLOWS. Fig. 74. 
Possibly your steam supply may be near. I laid plans 
last year which were carried out for using steam from 
factories, traction engines, a stone-crusher plant, porta¬ 
ble farm steam engines, house heating, boilers, and feed 
cookers. A discarded fire engine boiler is being over¬ 
hauled for portable use by a cooperative spraying or¬ 
ganization. A plumber’s pipe-thawing steamer weighing 
about 80 pounds was found useful to warm up tanks 
of material which had to be kept over, though insuffi¬ 
cient for the main cooking. I find it cheaper to waste 
t mixture containing crystals than to reboil 
Ordinarily the steam connection should be direct 
from the boiler to a horizontal line extending above the 
barrels, with drops into each barrel. Yet to cook a 
little from a house boiler a radiator can be uncoupled, 
evetl while stcanl is up, and after giving the valve half 
a backward turn, return the part of the union which 
remained fast to the radiator and reduce the connection 
to take a hose ; Let the hose run outside and connect 
with the center of a pipe bent as an oxbow, with a leg 
to stand in each barrel,- or entirely in one barrel at 
will. Tees on the ends of the pipe spread the steam, 
and £he essential cost of such a steam connection is 
less than a dollar. As improvements, outside valves 
and pipes to spread the steam are desirable, also an 
air cock to break the siphonage, for when boilers chill 
a vacuum forms above the water, and the spray mix¬ 
ture will fill this unless air can. I have heard that 
even with this precaution some old boilers have taken 
a sly drink, which really works no harm, though prob¬ 
ably a swing check valve would stop it entirely. Most 
strainers do not have surface enough, nor the screen 
set at a slant. In the field there is economy in the 
best hose, but inexpensive iron extension rods, long 
shank couplings, high pressure, behind fewer nozzles 
than are common, but with larger apertures. There is 
no economy in attempting to spray more than one side 
of a row of trees with the same wind unless they are 
Small. PERCY L. HUESTED. 
LIME AND SULPHUR AS A FUNGICIDE 
/I Substitute for Bordeaux Mixture. 
Lime, salt and sulphur is now the most widely used 
remedy against the San Jose scale in the Eastern States, 
as well as on the Pacific Coast. It is recommended by 
more experiment stations than any other scale remedy, 
and has succeeded in the hands of more farmers than 
any other spray thus far generally tested. The ques¬ 
tion of its value as a fungicide and to what extent it 
may replace sprayings with Bordeaux Mixture is there¬ 
fore a timely one. 
PEACH LEAF-CURL.—Over 10 years ago Newton 
B. Pierce definitely proved that the Peach leaf-curl can 
be controlled by this spray. He states that as early 
as 20 years ago some California fruit growers had 
noticed that trees thus treated were comparatively free 
from leaf-curl. I have grouped below some of his re¬ 
sults from experiments in which compounds of lime 
and sulphur were used. Equally good results were se¬ 
cured from other States, but the results are not given 
in such a form that they can be included in these tables: 
Per cent 
Number of of diseased 
Treatment. 
trees. 
leaves. 
California—1895 : 
Unsprayed . 
200 
84 
Sprayed with lime and sulphur, 
or'with lime, salt and sulphur 
100 
18 
Sprayed with Bordeaux and 
other copper compounds. 
130 
10 
Oregon.—1895 : 
Unsprayed . 
404 
34 
Sprayed with lime, salt and sul¬ 
phur . 
S6 
10 
Sprayed with Bordeaux and 
other copper compounds. 
683 
3 
Michigan—1894 : 
Unsprayed . 
38 
89 
Sprayed with lime, salt and sul- 
ph'ur . 
38 
20 
New York—1894 
Unsprayed . 
46 
30 to 
40 
Sprayed with lime, salt and sul- 
phur . 
25 
practically 
none 
Sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture 
25 
practically 
none 
In 1902 P. J. Parrott found that lime, salt and sulphur 
controlled the leaf-curl in Ohio not only in his experi¬ 
ments but as used by farmers. In 1904 it controlled 
the curl in Idaho. In the same year the Connecticut 
Experiment Station found that although leaf-curl W35 
prevalent on Elberta and other varieties, the trees 
sprayed with this mixture were comparatively free from 
it. Georgia and other experiment stations report that 
this spray will control the curl. A Michigan bulletin 
of last Spring states that, “Copper sulphate (two pounds 
to 50 gallons of water) is the best and cheapest remedy 
that can be applied for leaf-curl, but if the trees are 
infested with San Jose scale, the use of sulphur, lime 
and salt will answer for the leaf-curl as well as for 
the scale. My observations have convinced me that one 
thorough application of lime, salt and sulphur in the 
Spring will control the leaf-curl. The Fall applications 
of this or of Bordeaux Mixture are not as effective as 
Spring applications. In many orchards 
examined last Summer there were marked 
differences between the foliage on sprayed 
and unsprayed orchards. Many farmers 
feel that lime, salt and sulphur is worth 
its cost wholly aside from its value as a 
remedy against the scale. From the re¬ 
sults of my observations I am inclined to 
believe that this is the case. It not only 
helps to control the leaf-curl, but helps to 
control many other fungi that are gener¬ 
ally unnoticed. 
BROWN ROT.—There are many con¬ 
tradictory statements as to its value 
against the brown rot of the peach and 
plum. In this case it will probably take 
the place of the first spraying with Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture. But one treatment with 
either of these is ineffective. Hence the 
diversity of opinion as to its value in this 
case. The successful experiments for the 
control of brown rot have required from 
three to six sprayings. Lime, salt and sul¬ 
phur merely takes the place of the first 
if these. If not followed by the later 
treatments there is not likely to be any 
good effect apparent. I have no data on 
the point, but it seems probable that the one treatment 
will prevent some of the blighting of blossoms that the 
brown-rot fungus sometimes causes when we have 
wet weather at blossoming time. 
APPLE SCAB.—The Geneva, New York, Station has 
tested this spray for two years in spraying for Apple 
scab. The, experiments in 1904 included 1,497 large 
apple trees. The following table gives a summary of 
the results: 
Per cent of 
Treatment. scabby fruit. 
Unsprayed. 83 
One application of lime, salt and sulphur. 61 
Same followed by two sprayings Bordeaux-ar¬ 
senical mixture. 10 
Three applications of Bordeaux-arsenical mix¬ 
ture . 13 
As in the case of brown rot of the peach, one appli¬ 
cation is not sufficient. The examination of over 1,100 
A NEW ENGLAND HILLTOP. Fig. 76. 
apple orchards in New York in the Summers of 1903 
and 1904 by the writer, assisted by Mr. Bues, showed 
conclusively that in these years the most important 
spraying for scab was the “second” spraying, or the 
one immediately after blossoming. The next in im¬ 
portance was the “third” spraying, the “first” spraying 
before the blossoms opened being the least important. 
But all three were better than any other combination of 
them, and were the only safe number to give. The 
above experiment seems to show that when apple trees 
are sprayed in the Spring with lime, salt and sulphur the 
