When and How to Do Winter Spraying 
THE VARIOUS PESTS WHICH ATTACK TREES AND SHRUBS 
AND HOW THEY MAY BEST BE REACHED DURING THE WIN¬ 
TER—WHAT PREVENTIVES ARE MOST SUCCESSFULLY USED 
T 
Every inch of 
bark must be 
reached 
IME was — according to those wonderful 
tales which one may always hear where 
a knot of the oldest inhabitants gathers at the 
blacksmith shop to watch the repairing of some 
part of the spraying outfit — when perfect ap¬ 
ples loaded down the healthy and unmolested 
trees, and spraying was undreamed of. 
That day, if in fact it ever really was, has 
passed. I believe, however, that authentic his¬ 
tory would support the remark of J. H. Hale, 
the ‘‘peach king,” made at a meeting of fruit 
growers. Several had complained at length of 
the ravages of the San Jose scale; as a veteran 
grower they looked to him for a few remarks, 
jumping to his feet he exclaimed, “Why the 
scale is the best friend you ever had. It has 
compelled you to take proper care of your 
trees, which you never would have done with¬ 
out it !” 
Mr. Hale was one of the first to give his 
trees real care. He not only kept them clean, 
but through cultivation he gave them moisture 
and air, and he fed them — he orders their food¬ 
stuffs, straight chemicals, by the hundreds of 
tons. In spite of Brown-rot scale, Black-spot, 
Yellows, and all the other new-fangled insects 
and diseases, his peach orchards have trans¬ 
formed barren New England hilltops into 
green acres of productive fruit trees. 
It is true that the armies of the minute enemies have invaded 
fruit growing as well as the other field of agriculture, but in none 
can they be more thoroughly fought off, or has their history been 
so carefully studied. 
The habits of the several insects attacking fruit trees naturally 
vary greatly. Some of them may be got at only while they are 
active, in the summer time, as 
they spend their winters in quar¬ 
ters inaccessible to the orchardist. 
Others, on the other hand, are 
careless enough to leave them¬ 
selves exposed ; and this gives the 
fruit grower an exceptionally 
good opportunity to exterminate 
them, for three plain reasons. 
First, as the trees are dor¬ 
mant, much stronger remedies 
may be applied; secondly, as no 
leaves or fruit are in the way the 
job can be done more thorough¬ 
ly ; and in the third place, as the 
enemy is not active, it is easy to 
get him. Moreover, there is usually more time for the work than 
is found in the busy summer season, and consequently is not so 
likely to be skipped. But it must be borne in mind that winter 
spraying is a supplement to, not a substitute for, summer spraying. 
The San Jose scale, illustrated in its active state on this page, 
is the most serious of the pests we can fight in winter. To the 
Tall trees will 
need a power 
sprayer 
inexperienced, the amount of injury which 
this small creature can do to a strapping big 
full grown tree, seems incredulous. But one 
who has witnessed the astonishing improve¬ 
ment, both in quality of fruit and amount of 
new growth, resulting from a single season's 
thorough spraying, needs no further proof that 
they must work serious havoc. The San Jose 
scale is about the size and shape of a smali 
pin head, with a diminutive “crater” at its 
center. As every female scale bears several 
hundred young—there are sometimes four 
broods during a season—and as they are born 
living, one may imagine at what rate they in¬ 
crease. However, cold weather kills off all but 
those at a certain stage of development — black 
and half-grown—which live through the win¬ 
ter safely. Where they get a chance to multi¬ 
ply unchecked they form plainly discernible 
colonies or crusts on the branches, and on the 
fruits conspicuous small red spots. 
For San Jose, spray in fall or spring, with 
any of the winter sprays. In bad cases, at both 
times. 
Oyster Shell Scale. This is sometimes taken 
for the above, as it colonizes and encrusts 
small apple twigs, and larger limbs. It is really 
a bark-louse, the eggs of which are protected 
during the winter by the old scales, which are something the shape 
of an oyster shell, but only the fraction of an inch long. Beside 
winter spraying, they may be reached, just after they hatch, in 
late May or June, by spraying with io per cent, kerosene emulsion 
or whale-oil soap, i pound to 4 gallons. This scale is not nearly 
so injurious as the San Jose, but undoubtedly retards growth. 
Blister Mite. This minute destroyer makes himself known by 
raising small brownish spots or 
blisters on the leaves of apple 
or pear trees. Spray in winter 
or earl)? spring, with kerosene 
emulsion diluted five times, or 
miscible oil. 
Leaf-curl of the peach, which 
causes the leaves to become 
twisted and distorted in spring 
and to fall in early summer, 
may also be controlled by win¬ 
ter spraying. Give one appli¬ 
cation, before the buds swell, 
using Bordeaux (5-5-50) or 
lime sulphur. 
Besides directly combating 
the disease being fought, the winter spraying undoubtedly serves a 
second purpose in keeping the trees clean of other insects and eggs. 
In winter spraying lime-sulphur wash and miscible oils are the 
two preparations universally used. The lime-sulphur became the 
more famous, but of late it has, if anything, been losing ground 
in favor of the oils. 
I he little red spots of San Jose scale have this appearance when 
greatly enlarged. Ordinarily they are the size of a pin head 
( 373 ) 
