358 REporT OF THE ACTING POMOLOGIST OF THE 
SPRAYING THE ORCHARDS. | 
The past season has been in many respects very.favorable to 
the life of insects infesting the larger fruits, the warm open win- 
ter allowing the eggs and larva to mature with a small percentage 
of loss by freezing, while the cold wet weather of spring and 
early summer retarded the first brood of the codling moth 
and extended the successive broods beyond the season when | 
spraying can be done with a certainty of benefit. 
The curculio was also held in check during the cold wet 
weather, but seemed to redouble its ree to destroy the fruit 
later in the season. | 
The negative results obtained in the plum spraying experiments 
are, we think, in part explained by these facts. 
The apple orchards were all sprayed the present season, except 
a few trees left as checks, a part of these were some distance from — 
the main orchard and separated from it by one of the trial 
orchards of pear and plum trees, and by a railroad surveyed 
across a corner of the farm some years ago. 7 
Prior to the present year no applications had been made in the 
test orchard with insecticides as a spray, for the destruction of 
insect pests injurious to the fruit. In the old apple orchard a ~ 
number of trials had been made in different years, most of them 
to test the value of various poisons recommended for the purpose. 
Paris green and London purple were the only poisons that gave 
definite results. The orchards are thoroughly infested with the 
codling moth and cureulio. Also during the season conceded to 
be the best for the destruction of these pests, rain fell almost 
incessantly, making it impossible to keep poison on the fruit and 
leaves long enough to be of benefit. 
Spraying had to be continued at intervals as the weather would 
permit, making it impossible to spray the orchard in any number 
of consecutive days. The results obtained, however, show a 
paying percentage of benefit derived from the applications made ~ 
for the codling moth. 
The test plum orchard was sprayed with London purple and we 
water, at the rate of one pound of purple to 200 gallons of water, | 
for the curculio, it being the only available place for such experi- 
ments, the old plum orchard inclosed in the hen yards having 
been so little infested in other years that no work has been 
attempted in it. It was impossible to leave check frees, as there 
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