New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 287 
important funetion of the salt is to affect the physical charae- 
teristics of the mixture, as noted above. In fact, I am led to 
believe that an equally effectual wash can be prepared by omit- 
ting the salt and prolonged boiling and using an alkali instead. 
“In applying this mixture during a wet season the soluble 
compounds like the sulphides and thiosulphates would be 
washed out and the sulphites and sulphates, being slightly 
soluble in water, would disappear to some extent, leaving lime 
(Ca(OH),), which would gradually absorb carbon dioxide (CO,) 
from the air forming the insoluble calcium carbonate (CaCQ,). 
“Applied during a drought, gradual decomposition would take 
place. The thiosulphates would break up, liberating sulphur (8) 
and the sulphites and sulphides would probably oxidize to the 
sulphates. The lime would eventually change to the carbonate, 
giving the trees a coating of white.” 
1. EARLY SPRING TREATMENT WITH THE LIME-SULPHUR-SALT 
WASH. 
For the experiments in this series the winter wash was used. 
It was made after the formula given on page 284. The treat- 
ment and results in the five orchards included in this series are 
as follows: 
ORCHARD I, LONG ISLAND, PEACHES AND JAPANESE PLUMS. 
This orchard is located about three miles northeast of River- 
head. It consists of 242 trees, of which 152 are peaches and the 
remainder plums. The peaches include nine varieties, as fol- 
lows: Iron Mountain, 29; Wheatland, 27; Crosby, 6; Waterloo, 
17; Alexander, 18; Champion, 12; Early Crawford, 6; Late Craw- 
ford, 18, and Elberta, 11. The plums, 42 in all, are Japanese 
varieties, principally Burbank. 
The peaches have been set about eight years and the plums 
five. The orchard has had fair cultivation until the past two 
years, when it has been neglected and allowed to run down. 
The peaches especially showed poor growth and most of them 
were much weakened by the scale. The plums were in much 
better condition. When the trees first became infested is not 
