1011 . 
PLAIN FACTS ABOUT SPRAYING. 
When and How to Do It. 
Part II. 
Where good help is plenty and avail¬ 
able the hand sprayer is not only prac¬ 
tical but sometimes desirable. No one 
should get a power sprayer who is not 
mechanic enough to keep it in good con¬ 
dition, for he will never get any service 
from it. On the other hand where help 
is scarce, sometimes the only way to 
get the work done is to depend upon 
the power rig, so I do not believe any¬ 
one is competent to advise what kind 
of outfit to use, except he knows some 
of the conditions of the party to make 
the purchase. 
Applying Mixtures.— Taking up the 
application of the mixtures in the order 
of their relative importance, I consider 
the one for scale first. We can grow 
good trees without growing good fruit, 
but we cannot grow good fruit without 
growing good trees, and a tree, be it 
ever so good, will not remain so long if 
badly infested with scale. The greatest 
number of live scales generally winter 
over on the lower sides of the limbs; 
consequently it is important that the 
covering of the lower or under surfaces 
of every limb is complete, for this pur¬ 
pose the elbow and nipple should be 
used setting the nozzle at right angle 
to the rod. Begin near the top of the 
tree, gradually coming down, working 
the rod constantly, as with a good spray 
an instant is enough to cover the por¬ 
tion on which the spray is playing. Keep 
the spray always directed upward, and 
continue to work the rod downward 
until you get it under the lowest limbs, 
when the lower side of all the limbs 
and twigs on the windward side of the 
tree should be covered. In passing the 
spray up through the tree in this man¬ 
ner much of the mixture drops back, 
covering the top of that side of the tree 
to quite an extent, so that by turning 
the red over, which will make the stream 
play down from above, again beginning 
at the top, working through and around 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
the tree downward to the bottom, that 
part of, or side of, tree should be com¬ 
pletely covered. However, one should 
make frequent examination, and be sure 
there are no skips. If we stop and think 
that a scale is not larger than the head 
of a pin, and that one of these will in¬ 
crease to one million in a favorable sea¬ 
son, we can realize how few are neces¬ 
sary for a bad reinfestation, and what 
effort we should put forth to cover them 
all. Notwithstanding the fact that lime 
used as a marker detracts slightly from 
the efficacy of the lime-sulphur wash, 
yet I believe it desirable that those not 
having considerable experience should 
use it, enough to turn the trees white 
when dry; then by passing over them 
later they can be easily touched up where 
skips have been made. These same 
methods, followed later with the wind 
from the opposite direction, will mean 
a good job. There is little danger with 
this application of getting on tec much, 
yet for the sake of economy spraying 
should stop as soon as tree is covered. 
The combined fungicide and insecticide, 
used primarily for apple scab and Cod¬ 
ling moths, is perhaps next in import¬ 
ance. If this is done at the proper time, 
which is before petals are quite all off, 
the blossoms or small apples will stand 
mostly upright with calyx lobes * ex¬ 
tended. These are the things to be con¬ 
sidered, as by the time they are properly 
treated the rest of the tree will have 
enough. Because these do stand mostly 
upward, the greater part of the applica¬ 
tion should be from above instead of 
from below, as in the case of scale. Al¬ 
ways keep team to windward; use el¬ 
bow and nipple as before, only always 
keep the stream pointing downward; 
begin at bottom of tree, work the rod 
well in through all parts of tree as 
rapidly as possible, working gradually 
toward the top, until all has been well 
covered. The tree that is ideally sprayed 
would probably have every drop on that 
it would hold without dripping, yet the 
only true index to a good application is 
the number of blossoms that contain the 
mixture on some part of the lobes, pis¬ 
tils, or in the cup. No matter how wet 
the tree may be, if the two or three 
central blossoms of most of the clusters 
do not contain the mixture it is not a 
good application, so it is important that 
frequent examination of blossom clus¬ 
ters should be made that we may know 
rathei than guess something about the 
application. I am aware that one of the 
best authorities in the country has re¬ 
cently said, through several publications, 
that applying too much mixture to the 
trees was probably the most prolific 
cause of burning. No doubt this is so, 
and yet I am positive we cannot reduce 
the. amount of mixture without material¬ 
ly increasing the number of wormy ap¬ 
ples. 
Do not waste much time trying to 
spray leeward side of trees, rather get 
oyer them again with wind in opposite 
direction. This, of course, means where 
quite a number of large trees are to be 
treated. The contact sprays for aphis 
and other sucking insects, to be effective, 
must be applied pretty thoroughly to 
the lower side of the foliage, and before 
leaves curl; also the greater the pres¬ 
sure the better the result; otherwise 
work with the wind and from top to 
bottom of tree as for scale. 
Fungicide for Brown Rot.— Spraying 
with a fungicide for brown rot in stone 
fruit, whether used early in connection 
with arsenate of lead, when the treat¬ 
ment is effective also for curculio, or 
used before gathering for rot alone, has 
for its object the protection of the entire 
surface of fruit, so spray must be applied 
plentifully and from all directions for 
best results. In any spraying, handling 
the rod and directing the spray always 
to best advantage is an art, and is only 
learned by practice, and my advice to 
anyone who has or expects to have 
spraying to do, is get hold of the rod 
himself and learn all he can about it. 
No man can direct others to do a thing 
intelligently who does not know how to 
do it himself. It is possible for almost 
anyone i oho wants to learn, by following 
directions, and putting them in prac¬ 
tice, to be able to do a pretty good job 
in a comparatively short time. On the 
other hand, few will ever know how by 
simply reading the directions from a 
book or paper, so do not wait until you 
know all about it from this source. I 
know one man who has been reading in¬ 
structions, attending meetings, etc., for 
eight years, trying to learn all about it 
before he started to spray, with the re¬ 
sult that he has no more confidence to¬ 
day that he had eight years ago, and in 
the meantime has practically lost two 
good orchards. Other men in the same 
neighborhood who knew no more about 
it than he did, but who studied and 
acted both, are considered the most pro¬ 
gressive fruit growers in the place. It 
surely looks as though there was a moral 
here, and it is “Get busy.” 
WM. HOTAIJNG. 
315 
BARTLETT PEAR ON KIEFFER. 
H. F. <?., Hopkinton, Mass .—In issue of 
October 22, 1910, 1 see E. S. Black an¬ 
swers about top-working Kieffer pear trees. 
I would like to ask a few questions: Do 
the scions fail to grow ? If they grow do 
they form a good union? If they do, are 
they good bearers? If so, what is the 
quality of the fruit? I see George T. 
Powell says the liuest Bartlett trees he 
has are top-worked on Kieffers. Some of 
our most prominent nurserymen are ad¬ 
vocating the use of Kieffer stock for Bose 
and Winter Nelis. 
A ns. —H. F. G. wishes to know if 
grafts of European pears fail to grow 
when inserted in Kieffer stocks, and if 
they do grow, do they form a good 
union, and if they are good bearers, and 
what would be the quality of the fruit. 
I repeat what I have said before in 
answer to questions about using Kieffer 
or any of the Oriental or hybrids as a 
stock for the European varieties —do 
not do it.. The graft of a Bartlett, for 
instance, inserted in a Kieffer, will live 
equally as well and for the first year 
grow better than if it were inserted in 
another vigorous European variety. The 
union to all outward appearances would 
be perfect, and no doubt the owner 
would be delighted with the prospects 
of the future orchard. After the first 
year’s growth, let the grower examine 
carefully the limbs of the Kieffer where 
the Bartlett grafts look so promising, 
and he will notice that the Kieffer limb 
has not made any growth at all; that it 
has stood still and allowed its European 
guest apparently to occupy the whole 
house, table, food and all. The Kieffer’s 
bark has lost its lustre, the soft velvety 
feeling to the touch, and seems to be 
what the politicians would call “sulking 
in its tent.” The second year the Bart¬ 
lett grafts will begin to show trouble; 
they will make but little growth, and 
they, too, will begin to show lack of 
nourishment, and that its host has re¬ 
fused to support it. I have tried this 
again and again. I have seen it tried 
by others, and always with the same re¬ 
sults—absolute failure. The quantity 
and quality of fruit grown on stunted, 
dying trees can easily be imagined. I 
have heard of one man who claimed to 
have been successful in growing the 
Seckel on Kieffer stock, but no other 
variety. I would advise H. F. G. to 
graft a few trees and learn by experience 
what might be the result on his own 
place; wait until the second year’s 
growth has been completed before de¬ 
ciding. Miracles have and are yet be¬ 
ing performed, and one of them would 
be, to me, an orchard of Bartletts doing 
well on Oriental stocks. e. s. black. 
THE USE OF 
RED CROSS 
LOW FREEZING DYNAMITE 
For Blasting Subsoil and Hard Pan 
IMPROVES ALL KINDS OF LANDS FOR ALL KINDS OF CROPS 
J. H. Caldwell, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, increased his corn crop 33 per cent bv 
blasting the ground with dynamite. 
M. T. Williams, of Medicine.Lodge, Kansas, blasted nearly worthless land and made it worth 
ten times as much as it was before. 
The Hale-Georgia Orchard Co., Fort Valley, Georgia, blasted holes in which to plant young 
trees with the result that these trees grew twice as quickly as any others. 
J. B. Shaffer, Sedgwick Co., Kansas, blasted a row of holes across a forty-acre swamp and 
raised 1,600 bushels of oats on the ground it had occupied. 
G. W. Phelps, Riverside, Cal., blasted, between orange trees and greatly improved the fruit. 
J 
Write for Farmer s Handbook 
E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS POWDER COMPANY 
Established 1802 WILMINGTON* DEL., U. S. A. 
