New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 241 
mixture on the stigmatic surfaces but none of these set fruit. 
It appears, therefore, that in these cases the spray mixture in- 
hibited the process of fertilization and thus eventually caused 
the death of the entire blossom. 
“Blossoms which had been open several days before they 
were sprayed seem to have reached a stage where the treatment 
did not check the progress of fertilization, and the fruit set as 
abundantly as it did from corresponding blossoms which were 
not sprayed.” 
From theoretical considerations one would expect that the 
blossoms of fruits would suffer greater injury than foliage; 
for the floral organs lack the protective cuticle of leaves, and the 
cellular tissue is more delicate in structure than the tissues of 
leaves. It is probable, too, that the secretions from the nectaries 
and the stigmas would have a solvent action on the copper salts. 
The structure of the flower is such that moisture is retained 
longer than by leaves and its action on the copper compound 
would be to bring more or less of the latter into solution. 
INJURIES SIMILAR TO BORDEAUX INJURY. 
It is hard to convince fruit growers, and some experimenters 
as well, of the fact of bordeaux injury. Their argument is that 
such injuries occur in unsprayed orchards. It is true that there 
are similar injuries caused by other agents, some of which are 
often confused with the trouble under discussion. It is necessary 
to distinguish between these various injuries. . 
INJURY FROM THE ARSENITES. 
When used in too great quantity, improperly prepared, or 
under very favorable conditions, the arsenites may injure foliage 
as does bordeaux mixture. In fact, bordeaux injury is often as- 
cribed to an arsenite, the two compounds being usually combined 
in spraying the apple in New York. There are but few apple 
growers in this State who have suffered from bordeaux injury 
that have not satisfied themselves by the simple experiment of 
spraying without the one or the other as to which of the com- 
pounds injures fruit and leaves. In our experiments we have 
hardly considered the possibility of injury from the arsenite, and 
the check trees sprayed with arsenate of lead without injury shows 
that there was no necessity for such consideration. 
