THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
THE SELF-BOILED LIME-SULPHUR MIXTURE. 
In Circular Number i of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 
United States Department of Agriculture, W. M. Scott, 
pathologist in charge of orchard spraying demonstrations, 
investigations of diseases of fruits, has the following to say: 
At intervals during the past several years the writer has 
made experiments with sulphur and various sulphur com¬ 
pounds with the object of finding a fungicide that could be 
used during the growing period on fruit trees, especially the 
peach, without injury to the foliage or fruit. The first work 
was done in 1901, at the suggestion of M. B. Waite, and con¬ 
sisted of experiments with various sulphids, all of which, 
proved injurious to peach foliage. During the season of 
1907, self-boiled lime-sulphur mixtures in various propor¬ 
tions and strengths were tested on both the apple and the 
peach. 
Preparation of the Mixture. 
The mixture that gave the most promising results was 
composed of 10 pounds of sulphur flowers or flour (and 1 5 
pounds of fresh stone lime to 50 gallons of water), and may 
be prepared as follows: 
Place the lime in a 50-gallon barrel and pour a 2 or 3 
gallon bucket of boiling water over it. Immediately add 
the sulphur and another bucket of hot water. The heat 
from the slaking lime will boil the mixture violently for 
several minutes. Some stirring is necessary to prevent 
burning, and more water should be added if the mass gets 
too thick to stir, but the cooking is more effectual when the 
minimum quantity of water is used, usually from six to eight 
gallons being required. A piece of old carpet or gunnysack 
thrown over the top of the barrel helps to keep in the heat. 
The boiling will continue from twenty to thirty minutes, 
depending upon the quality of the lime. When the boiling 
ceases, dilute with cold water to make 50 gallons, stir 
thoroughly and strain through a sieve of about 20 meshes 
to the inch in order to take out coarse particles of lime, but 
all the sulphur should be carefully worked through. 
In a similar manner, enough for 150 gallons may be pre¬ 
pared in a barrel by using 30 pounds of sulphur and 45 
pounds of quicklime, with about 20 gallons of boiling water. 
When the boiling ceases, the barrel should be filled with cold 
water and diluted with 100 gallons more when transferred to 
the spray tank. 
In some of the experiments, a wash consisting of five 
pounds of sulphur and 10 pounds of lime to 50 gallons of 
water gave excellent results. This would indicate that a 
much more dilute mixture than the 10-15-50 formula may 
prove to be a satisfactory fungicide. The wash was also 
prepared with cold water instead of boiling water, and in 
some cases a portion of the lime was at first withheld and 
later added, a small lump at a time, in order to prolong the 
boiling; but the experiments have not yet been sufficient to 
determine definitely the correct formula and the best 
method of preparation. 
• Should the boiling be very prolonged the mixture might 
become caustic enough to burn foliage, although no such 
injury developed in the experiments. If it should be found 
in practice that the use of hot water dissolves too much 
sulphur, so that .the foliage is injured, cold water may be 
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substituted and a less intense heat thus developed, or the 
sulphur can be withheld until the lime has partly slaked, 
thus regulating the amount of sulphur dissolved. 
By this boiling process, the sulphur is put in good 
mechanical condition for spraying and enough of it is dis¬ 
solved to make the mixture adhesive. As a large percent¬ 
age of the sulphur is simply held in mechanical mixture with 
the lime water, it is necessary that the spraying outfit be 
provided with a good agitator, so that the mixture may be 
kept constantly stirred, and settling be thus avoided. In 
the treatment of apple trees, Paris green may be added for 
the control of the codling moth in the same manner as when 
Bordeaux mixture is used. 
A Combined Fungicide and Insecticide. 
Self-boiled lime-sulphur washes used in the dormant 
spraying of fruit trees are known to have some effect against 
the San Jose scale, and in order to avoid the expense of a 
cooking plant a few growers have employed this method of 
preparing the wash. Entomologists have wisely discouraged 
the use of self-boiled washes because of their inferiority to 
the boiled preparations, but when used as a fungicide in the 
growing season a self-boiled lime-sulphur wash might be 
expected to aid considerably in the control of the San Jose 
scale and other scale insects by the destruction of the crawd- 
ing lice, and would thus perhaps prevent the infestation of 
the fruit, a condition especially likely to occur with apples 
and pears. This would give it a decided advantage over 
Bordeaux mixture and make it especially useful as a com¬ 
bined fungicide and insecticide in the treatment of large 
apple trees on which the scale is so difficult to control. 
Summer applications for the prevention of fungous diseases 
would thus supplement the dormant treatment of the San 
Jose scale without extra cost. 
Sulphur is also a w r ell-known remedy for various mites, 
and the self-boiled wash would probably be of considerable 
value in the control of the red spider. 
WESTERN CHERRIES. 
The present indications are that the cherry crop will be 
one of the best in the history of the industry in the section 
around Salem, Ore., and that means that it will be one of the 
best in the history of the world. The cherry trees are not 
overloaded as they were in many instances last year, and 
the result will be a much finer quality and larger sized fruit. 
This means, without doubt, that the season will produce the 
largest and best cherries ever known. The peculiar climatic 
conditions in the central Willamette valley are especially 
adapted to the perfect development of this delicious fruit, 
and the conditions being favorable makes the prediction safe 
that the grower will have a quality of fruit never before 
known. Furthermore, the quantity, owdng to the increased 
acreage, will be larger than ever. By consulting the figures 
of the canneries and shippers it is learned that the growth 
of the cherry industry contiguous to Salem has been mar¬ 
velous in the past five years. It is believed that the acreage 
has quadrupled in the past two years, as it had nearly done 
in the preceding three years. Cherry-growing is now 
beyond all experiment, and in a normal status, both as to 
methods of growing and marketing, as well as the demand 
for the crop. 
