1015. 
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349 
Protecting Peach Trees From Frost. 
1 1IAVE about GOO Efberta peach trees 
nine years old, which have borne about 
50 boxes the past two years, not any 
before, owing to the fact that the buds 
start until they show pink, and some¬ 
times bloom during a Winter thaw, or 
too early Spring. Then they freeze and 
fall off. The trees are large and thrifty, 
and were in bloom last Spring when we 
had a heavy frost. Still many of the 
trees had some fruit on and three fav¬ 
orably located were full. If the bud 
starting could be retarded two weeks or 
even one, most years we would have a 
good crop. I have seen it suggested in 
The R. N.-Y. that whitewashing the 
trees would do this. Can any of your 
readers speak from experience in regard 
to it? Will there be danger of spray¬ 
ing too much lime on and injuring the 
trees? r. r. 
Xorthwest Arkansas. 
I would suggest two essential means 
by which peach trees may have the start¬ 
ing of their buds in late Winter retard- 
buds do not tend to start into premature 
growth on warm sunny days in February 
or March. For that reason there is no 
incentive in the North to keep the trees 
from wakening up into growth in Win¬ 
ter. The farther south one goes, how¬ 
ever, the more liable the trees are to have 
their buds start a little on warm sunny 
days in February and continue slight ac¬ 
tivity every warm spell until Spring. 
This premature starting of the buds makes 
them tender, so they cannot stand subse¬ 
quent cold spells. It also finally results 
in their coming into bloom too early, be¬ 
fore late Spring frosts are over. For 
that reason toward the South it is well 
to give the severe Spring pruning. Good 
Sulnmer cultivation, green crops, and on 
thin poor soil, nitrogen fertilizers like 
nitrate of soda and dried blood, are neces¬ 
sary to maintain late growth, going to 
sleep late in Autumn and consequently 
t il: Anything which favors the trees 
growing vigorously and late in the season 
so as to hold their leaves until they are 
taken off in November by an Autumn 
frost will tend to keep the buds dormant 
later the following Spring. The reason 
for this is because in the long season 
toward the South, peach trees not grow¬ 
ing vigorously will tend to begin drop¬ 
ping some of their leaves in August, the 
leaves are nearly alt off in September 
and the trees go into their Winter rest 
period in late Summer or early Autumn. 
The earlier they go into the Winter rest 
period the earlier they will tend to wake 
up from it in the Spring. On the other 
hand, if the trees are kept growing vigor¬ 
ously until cold weather of early Winter 
takes off their leaves, they go to sleep 
later and do not wake up until late 
Spring, when it is safe for them to begin 
their growth. 
The most important way by which the 
trees may be stimulated into late growth 
is the pruning of the peach trees back 
as severely as possible without removing 
too many fruit buds and reducing the 
setting of the crop during the Spring. 
Reach trees pruned back somewhat sev¬ 
erely in late Winter or early Spring make 
a more vigorous growth on the parts that 
re lain than would bo the case if they 
are not pruned back. As a result they 
grow later. Good cultivation to retain 
moisture in the soil also stimulates a 
late growth- Cultivation should be given 
in early Spring when the peach trees be¬ 
gin their growth, and the better the cul¬ 
tivation the more vigorous growth the 
tree will make. Incidentally in the sec¬ 
tion from which the inquiry is made it 
is well to grow cow peas in the orchard 
as often as is feasible, in order to add 
nitrogen and plant fiber and humus to 
tin- soil. This stimulates late, more vig¬ 
orous growth. Cultivation may proceed 
until the first of July, then sow an 
early variety of cow peas bo be plowed 
under the following Spring when cultiva¬ 
tion begins. 
In the northern limit of peach growing 
v. here early Winter may suddenly come 
< i cold, this practice of stimulating 
Autumn growth is not safe. In the 
North the trees should be allowed to 
ripen their wood thoroughly for the Win¬ 
ter. as green succulent wood may be 
caught by a very low Winter tempera¬ 
ture in early December before it has time 
to ripen. Furthermore, toward the North 
the Winter is cold enough, so that the 
staying asleep until late in the Spring. 
Another important factor in South Mis¬ 
souri and Arkansas is to spray the trees 
with some material, like lime whitewash, 
that will reflect tin- heat on Winter days. 
The best material to spray with nowa¬ 
days is home-boiled lime-sulphur, such 
as is used for a Winter San Jos6 scale 
spray. Ilome-boilcd lime-sulphur mix¬ 
ture sprayed on the twigs and main limbs 
so as to form a thin shell sometime in 
January covers the twigs with a white 
coat. This white coat reflects the sun’s 
rays on sunny days in late Winter and 
Spring. It will keep the twigs and buds 
at atmospheric temperature. The purple 
coloring matter on the unwhitened twigs 
absorbs heat enough on sunny Winter 
days to raise the temperature of the buds 
and twigs 15 to 25 degrees above the 
atmosphere. For that reason untreated 
trees tend to have their buds growing a lit¬ 
tle on sunny Winter days even when the 
atmospheric temperature is 15 or 25 de¬ 
grees cooler than would admit of growth if 
the twigs are whitened. Only a few growers 
as yet have adopted this Winter whiten¬ 
ing of the twigs, perhaps because most of 
our orchards are large orchards which are 
difficult to spray, and keep covered with 
the white lime-sulphur during the Winter 
time. A number of smaller orchardists 
who have tried it report that they fre¬ 
quently get a full crop on whitened trees 
when the crop is killed on untreated trees. 
At the Missouri Experiment Station, two 
diagonal rows of trees through a peach 
orchard were sprayed every Winter in 
this manner for a period of ten years. 
These whitened trees produced two more 
peach crops during the* decade than did 
the adjacent untreated trees. Toward the 
South I believe Winter spraying with 
lime-sulphur white to reflect the heat 
from the buds is a thoroughly practical, 
commercial proposition. 
Mo. Exp. Sta. [ i’UOF.1 j. c. wuittex. 
Liquid Measures. —Prof. Person of 
the Colorado Agricultural College has 
prepared the following table: 
One teaspoonful. equals one dram; two 
teaspoonfuls equal one dessertspoonful; 
two dessertspoonfuls, equals one table- 
spoojiful; four tablespoonfuls, equal one 
wineglassful; eight drams, ‘qual one fluid 
ounce; one wineglassful, equals two fluid 
ounces; 16 fluid ounces, equals one pint; ! 
two wineglassfuls, equals one gill; two! 
cupfuls (ordinary), equals one pint; 1G 
tablespoonfuls, equals one cup. 
For Itself 
LET US SEND YOU ANY 
OF THESE SPRAYERS — 
to try for 10 days, then if you 
buy, you can' pay us cash or 
we’ll wait till next fall for our 
money.—The extra profit will 
more than pay for it. We pay 
freight. PRICES LOW. 
HIGHEST QUALITY. 
Spraying Increases Profits 
Any Agricultural Experiment Station will tell you this. 
It drives out the disease and insects'which weaken trees 
and. plants, and gives them a fair chance to produce a 
full crop. 
Actual records of the Ohio Experiment Station show 
that where one apple tree was sprayed and another was 
not, the sprayed tree yielded 5J4 bushels more than the 
unsprayed tree. At 60c a bushel this is an extra profit 
of $3.15 from one tree alone. 
' We have manufactured sprayers for the last 28 years. 
That’s why we can put out a sprayer that is sold under 
Our 5-Year Guarantee 
Our guarantee protects you against defective material 
and workmanship. Five years will show up the weak 
points of any machine, if it has them, and the fact that 
we make this guarantee is conclusive evidence that the 
material,workmanship and efficiency of Hurst Sprayers 
are absolutely perfect. 
30 Styles of Orchard Sprayers 
Thirst Knapsack Sprayer — Operates easily and throws fine 
mist-like spray. Nothing to cause trouble. All valves can be 
removed from outside of tank without taking off pump. Large 
air chamber causes it to throw fine, steady spray 15 to 20 feet. 
Wide steel shoulder hooks heavily padded and self-adjusting in¬ 
stead of old-style shoulder strap. Furnished in galvanized steel 
or copper. High pressure ^-g-inch hose 48 inches long. “Maid 
of the Mist” nozzle. 
New Man-Power, Double - Cylinder Potato and Orchard 
Sprayer for trees, vineyards, potatoes, truck, etc. Easy to oper¬ 
ate. Automatically develops high pressure when pushed along. 
Wide high wheel makes pushing easy. Sprays four rows. 10 and 
20 gallon tanks. Heavy brass plunger, valves, strainer, etc. 
“Pilz-All” Barrel Sprayer. For tree spraying. Easily handled 
—develops high pressure. Furnished mounted on a barrel or 
plain. Specially designed double swing alternating agitation. 
Horse-Power Potato and Orchard Sprayer 
With 60 and 100 gallon tanks for one or two horses. 
Works automatically in field and orchard. 
This is a one-man machine. 
Power Orchard Sprayer for large 
fruit growers, 100 and 200 gal¬ 
lon tanks. Powerful pressure, 
automatic pressure regulator, 
cyclone agitator and four cycle 
engine that can be detached at 
will and used for other purposes. 
Duplex pump with outside packing 
and many other special features. 
THIS 
BOOK 
FREE 
Given free with our catalog of 30 differ¬ 
ent kinds of sprayers. Contains 74 illus¬ 
trations of insects and fungous pests. Gives 
proper formulae for their control. Gives 
Experiment Station reports showing the dol- 
lars-and-cents reasons for spraying. Tell us 
what kind of sprayer interests you or what 
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Fit«-All Barrel Sprayer 
Man-Power in Field 
Man-Power in Orchard 
Barrel Sprayer in Orchard 
Horse-Power Field Sprayer 
Horse-Power Orchard Sprayer 
Acme Power Sprayer 
The H. L. Hurst Mfg. Co., 2814 North St., Canton, O. 
