Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
The Rural New=l?brker 
The Business Farmer’s Paper 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies, Five Cents 
VoL. LXXVL new YORK. MARCH .3. 1017. No. 4410 
The Spraying Problem 
High Grade Apples 
I MPROVEMENTS IN METHODS.—The business 
of growing apples is attended with many dis- 
eouragements. For many at the ilis. fortunately, 
good remedies have 
been provided and the 
greatest factor of all in 
the production of good 
fruit is thorough spray¬ 
ing. Methods and mate¬ 
rials have become pret¬ 
ty well known. Though 
we have not yet come 
to the end of our knowl¬ 
edge of what to use, or 
of perfection of machin¬ 
ery with which to ap¬ 
ply the materials, man¬ 
ufacturers are meeting 
our needs as rapidly as 
possible. They h a v e 
given us so m e fine 
spraying equipments 
and are making im¬ 
provements as necessity 
demands. The scienti¬ 
fic men, working side 
by side with gx*owers, 
seeking for the right 
chemicals and combina¬ 
tions that may be used 
with safety to fruit and 
foliage, and insure 
death to insects and 
fungi, are the salt of 
the earth. While we 
have to be constantly 
looking for ways that 
may be better in the 
control of old troubles, 
and for remedies for 
new insects and dis¬ 
eases of which we have 
a pretty constant suc¬ 
cession, my first sug¬ 
gestion is for the or- 
chardist to adopt no in¬ 
novations. Stick to the 
chemTcals that are safe, 
and go slow with the 
things that do not have 
the specific sanction of 
the scientific men. 
FACTORS IN¬ 
VOLVED.—It is dif¬ 
ficult to advise a man 
how to do his spraying, 
because of the many 
factors involved, both 
seen and foreseen. In 
a general way, how¬ 
ever, it can be said that 
after one has had a 
long experience with a 
certain kind of work, 
doing it intelligently, 
having constantly in 
view the attainment of 
best results, and gets 
those results, he should 
have established in his 
mind certain ideas 
which he must believe 
in, and which he can 
projierly jiass along to 
others. My story shall 
bo from my own exper¬ 
ience, and from what I 
have also learned by 
careful study of the 
work of scientific or- 
chardists elsewhere, and it relates to apples in par¬ 
ticular. 
SPRAY MATERIALS.—Until the last year we in 
the Hudson River Valley have not been seriously 
disturbed by fungus troubles. Except for insects 
our apples have been clean and good. Our standard 
spraying materials are lime-sulphur, arsenate of 
lead and tobacco extract, and where correctly ap-, 
plied they have assuredly held in control most of 
the bad thing.s. My trees are ,as perfectly sprayed 
as it is in the power of man to accomplisli and the 
Picking Northwestern Greenings in a New Jersey Orchard. Fig. 110. See page 317 
above are the materials that I depend on. I have 
never counted the cost when it conies to spraying, 
and the returns are ample; it is the best orchard 
investment I can make. Ihiless some vagary of na¬ 
ture upsets things and destroys my faith, I shall 
stay by this program; will not use other things un¬ 
til I have to. The past season the apples of every 
district in the State of New York were spotted and 
fungused due to unfavoi-able weather influences, 
and a great i>ercentage of the crop matured as low- 
grade and unmarketable. Even our Hudson Valley 
orchards for the first 
time produced this un¬ 
clean fruit. There were 
from my own observa¬ 
tion orchards owned by 
Specialists who are fol¬ 
lowing out best meth¬ 
ods of culture, that in¬ 
clude correct and thor¬ 
ough spraying and the 
use of the above chem¬ 
icals, which produced 
beautiful crops of splen¬ 
did clean apples. To 
mention my own case: 
I attribute to the cumu¬ 
lative effects of good 
spraying for a number 
of years the fact that 
in a total crop of G.OOO 
barrels produced in my 
good orchards not one 
dozen barrels had to be 
unclassed on account of 
fungus spots. 
INSECT ERADICA¬ 
TION.—^The vigor with 
which we have followed 
out our dormant spray 
work immediately pre¬ 
vious to bud breaking, 
with concentrated lime- 
sulphur used one gal¬ 
lon to 8^ of water, 
has apparently eradi¬ 
cated from our orchards 
the San Jos6 and ali 
other scale insects, and 
has kept out entirely 
the apple-tree tent- 
caterpillars that were 
defoliating trees every¬ 
where. Where egg 
masses are deposited on 
my trees by flying moths 
fro m neighboring in¬ 
fested districts in every 
case lime-sulphur will 
kill the m. or enfeeble 
them so that they die 
soon after hatching. 
Having so much area to 
cover some of this 
spraying must be done 
just a little earlier than 
I like, but in the last 
few days as buds are 
greening and insect life 
is developing we add to 
the mixture three to 
four pounds of arsenate 
of lead to each 50 gal¬ 
lons. and tobacco ex¬ 
tract. a little more than 
three-quarters of a pint, 
to each 100 gallons. I 
use a little more ai'sen- 
ate of lead than is gen- 
ei’ally recommended, hut 
have found no disjxd- 
vantage in it, and few¬ 
er of the bud-moths, the 
canker-worm.s. green 
apple worms, leaf-rol¬ 
lers. etc., escape. We 
also get many of the 
redbugs and aphids and 
tungus spores do not find easy lodgement 
PINK SPRAYING.—If possible follow with an¬ 
other light spniying in a few days when leaves are 
larger and before the blossoms show—the “pink 
spraying” it is called—using {Continued on page 3S5.) 
