June  22,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
517 
SPRAYINa  AND  SPRAYERS. 
For  distributing,  liquid  insecticides  economically  and  effectively 
no  inethod  is  equal  to  that  of  the  spray.  By  a  suitable  appliance  the 
liquid  is  broken  up  into  myriads  of  minute  globules,  which  rest  like 
dew  on  plants  and  their  pests  alike.  In  this  term  it  acts  more  power¬ 
fully  against  many  parasites  than  if  five  or  ten  times  the  quantity 
were  applied  with  the  ordinary  syringe,  most  of  it  to  run  off  and  be 
wasted  on  the  ground,  if  nothing  worse,  or  on  the  soil  of  plants  in 
pots. 
Various  forms  of  excellent  spraying  appar.iti  are  in  use  fixed  on 
wheels  and  moved  by  hand  or  horse  po«er  according  to  circumstances. 
There  are  also,  as  numbers  of  persons  know  to  their  satisfaction,  the 
handy  and  serviceable  knapsack  sprayers,  as  well  as  small  pumps  fixed 
m  pails.  All  have  their  appropriate  uses;  but  few,  if  any  of  them, 
meet  the  circumstances  of  numbers  of  persons  in  comparatively  small 
private  gardens.  True,  small  hand  sprayers  have  been  invented,  some 
of  them  very  diminutive ;  but  all  the  same  a  thoroughly  sound, 
Fig.  114. 
durable,  and  efficient  appliance,  to  be  used  like  a  syringe,  has  long 
been  required  by  amateurs  and  gardeners  alike. 
Calling  at  the  South-Eastern  Agricultural  College  at  Wye  a  few 
weeks  ago  we  found  Professor  Percival  in  a  jubilant  mood.  With  a 
shout  of  Eureka  he  lured  us  into  his  tiarden.  It  was  thought  perhaps 
he  had  discovered  another  new  fungus  or  eelworm  which  he  was  going 
to  display  under  a  forty-thousand  power  microscope,  or  something  of 
that  kind  ;  but  it  was  something  very  different, 
visible  to  the  naked  eye,  tangible  and  substantial. 
Taking  a  syringe  out  of  a  pail  of  water  we 
were  the  next  moment  enveloped  in  a  cloud  cf 
mist.  Nothing  cared  he  for  hats  or  clothes,  and 
another  mist  was  produced,  with  the  comforting 
assurance  amidst  the  drizzle,  “  Oh,  never  mind,  it 
won’t  hurt  you;  did  you  ever  see  a  more  beautiful  spray?  I  tell 
you  it’s  the  btst  thing  I  have  found,  and  all  complete  for  nine  and  six  ; 
here,  take  it,  tiy  it,  examine  it  inside  and  out.”  This  was  done,  and 
to  the  question,  “  Did  you  ever  see  anything  better  ?  ”  we  were 
constrained  to  reply,  “No,  never;  but  where  did  you  find  it  ?  ”  The 
answer  was  “  Good  ;  you  have  not  come  to  Wye  for  nothing.  I  had 
it  from  Mr.  White  of  Paddock  Wood,  the  great  Hop  and  fruit  grower ; 
he  uses  bigger  things  himself  and  has  invented  this  for  everybody. 
Eureka.”  Exit  Professor  Percival. 
Messrs.  E.  A.  White  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  have  in  their  own  interests  been 
making  experiments  fir  a  long  time  with  the  object  of  abolishing 
insects.  As  a  result  they  used  with  much  success  and  distributed  a 
Hop  and  fruit  tree  jiieparation  called  “  Spimo.”  This  we  had  tried 
last  year.  It  cleaustd  liuit  trees  of  aphides  of  all  kinds  that  infested 
them,  killing  most  of  them  at  a  touch,  checked  mildew,  crippled  red 
spider,  and  when  applied  with  a  brush  cleared  a way’^  American  blight. 
The  verdict  of  the  operator  was,  “  Excellent  stuff  for  orchards,  but  not 
over-pleasant  to  use,  or  suitable  lor  greenhouse  work,  as  apart  from 
the  smell  it  affects  the  paint.” 
The  drawbacks  referred  to  have  now  been  abolished,  while  insects 
are  equally  abolished  by  another  preparation,  and  because  of  this  it 
has  been  shortly  I’amed ‘‘ Abol,”  as  presumably  signifying  abolisher. 
This  we  have  now  under  trial,  and  c.in  testify  that  it  is  not  in  the 
least  unpleasant  to  use,  in  fact  the  operator  washed  his  hands  in  it  as 
in  soapy  water,  which  the  mi.xture  resembles  at  one  to  two  parts  to 
100  parts  water,  and  went  forthwith  to  dinu-^r. 
The  mixture  left  no  stain  on  white  greenhouse  paint,  or  on  leaf 
or  flower;  indeed,  it  left  nothing  bciiini  it  but  dead  insects.  All 
that  were  reached  were  killed,  eveu  the  persistent  Aphis  mali 
and  its  attendant  —  ants.  Swarms  of  caterpillars  of  the  small 
ermine  moth  quickly  succumbed,  but  their  web  protector  sheltered 
them  from  the  spray,  and  the  syringe  nozzle  had  to  be  used  to  break 
the  nets. 
Similar  remarks  apply  to  the  American  blight;  when  the 
“  wool  ”  was  broken  through  they  were  dead  in  a  moment.  Neither 
thrips  nor  red  spider  could  be  discovered,  but  all  insects  that  could 
be  found  were  abolished.'  Ihe  roots  of  tender  seedlings  to  which  it 
was  applied  were  not  injured.  “Queer  stuff,”  remarked  the  operator, 
“it  seems  to  know  what  it  ought  not  to  hu’t  as  well  as  what  we  want 
to  kill.” 
The  small  measure  sent  with  each  tin  is  handy'.  One  measure 
to  a  gallon  of  rain  water  brings  a  lather,  but  quite  half  as  much 
more  is  requisite  for  making  hard  w'ater  seft  and  bringing  the 
requisite  lather,  which  seems  to  be  the  test  for  insect-killing  strength. 
The  solution  was  passed,  with  the  exceptions  stated,  through  the 
spray  nozzle  of  the  Abol  syringe,  and  a  little  seemed  to  go  a  very 
long  way. 
A  word  about  this  appliance.  It  is  brass,  strong,  and  well  finished, 
with  a  drip  protector  on  the  barrel  and  a  screw-like  plug  in  the  nozzle, 
with  two  spiral  grooves  cut  across  the  “  worms”  of  the  screw.  The 
outlets  of  the  grooves  are  opposite  each  other  at  the  nozzle,  and  there 
occurs  what  may  be  called  a  fight  of  insect-poisoning  water,  for  the 
two  whirling  streams  come  into  violent  contact,  and  are  cut  up  into 
molecules  innumerable,  and  hence  the  spray,  finer  and  more  abundant 
than  shown  in  fig.  114. 
There  seems  no  chance  of  the  metal  plug  water-divider  getting  out 
of  order,  and  we  found  no  clogging.  If  a  strong  single  jet  is  wanted 
take  out  the  plug;  if  several  small  straight  jets  are  desired  put  on  the- 
side  nozzle;  but  the  plug  is  the  thing  for  a  spray  and  making  the- 
most  of  the  liquid. 
For  spraying  the  under  sides  of  leaves  of  plants  near  the  ground, 
fruit  bushes,  Roses,  or  the  lower  parts  of  espalier  or  wall  trees  unscrew 
the  nozzle,  put  on  the  head  a  a,  fig.  115,  and 
finish  as  shown,  and  -you  may  soon  have  plants,, 
branches,  or  bushes,  as  if  enveloped  in  a  cloud 
of  smoke  by  the  fineness  and  number  of  the 
liquid  particles  ;  these  are  blown  about  by  the 
wind,  and  the  spraying  is  consequently  best 
done  on  a  still  day. 
We  draw  attention  to  this  useful,  not  to  say 
necessary,  garden  appliance,  because  we  believe 
it  to  be  grod,  and  we  shall  be  a  little  surprised  if  it  does  not  in 
time  to  come  be  regarded  as  a  staple  requisite  by  gardeners 
and  amateurs  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 
If  Messrs.  White  can  succeed  in  producing  a  complete 
red  spider  and  mildew  abolisher — an  Abol  No.  2,  equally 
handy  and  pleasant  to  use  as  Abol  No.  1,  “Spimo”  can  be 
Fig.  115. 
relef^ated  to  Hop  gardens  or  orchards,  and  there  possibly  end  its  days. 
It  is  said  that  the  Paddock  Wood  firm  uses  1,C00,000  gallons  of 
insecticides  yearly  in  its  extensive  plantations,  so  the  managers  are 
not  without  experimee  in  the  matter,  or  lacking  in  opportunities  ^for 
experimentation. 
PRUNING  EARLY  PEACH  TREES. 
As  soon  as  the  fruit  is  taken  from  the  early  trees  careful  cultivator& 
will  lose  no  time  in  removing  all  the  fruiting  wood  that  can  be  spared, 
thus  allowing  the  reserved  shoot  for  fruiting  next  season  ample  air  andb 
light.  There  are  times  when  it  is  advisable  to  leave  a  little  of  this  wood  in. 
For  instant  e,  where  there  is  a  thin  place  in  the  tree,  and  the  wood  that 
has  fruited  has  some  good  fruit  spurs  upon  it,  the  retention  of  these- 
prevents  a  bare  spot,  and  though  these  spurs  are  not  liked  by  the  very 
orthodox  Peach  and  Nectarine  growers,  the  fact  remains  that  on  some 
ot  the  early  kinds  that  are  very  much  addicted  to  bud  dropping  these 
spurs  will  often  carry  their  fruit  to  perfection  when  the  buds  drop  in- 
other  parts  of  the  tree. 
Though  I  am  far  Irom  advising  a  system  of  late  growth  for  this  class 
of  Peaches,  there  are  times  when  a  little  additional  growth  is  necessary., 
for  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  these  open  their  buds  at  the  same  timo 
as  later  kinds  in  the  same  house.  It  is  in  the  time  of  laying  on  the  flesh 
that  they  get  the  advantage,  so  a  week  or  two  longer  growth  after  the 
fruit  is  gathered  is  a  help  rather  than  not.  Over-ripening  is  a  bad  thing,, 
of  course,  but  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  check  to  growth,  and  those  who 
blame  over-ripening  for  bud  dropping  m  every  case  should  note  how  often 
the  upper  parts  of  the  trees,  where  nearest  the  glass,  and  therefore  the 
best  ripened  portion,  are  often  the  only  parts  that  carry  a  crop.— H, 
DRIBLETS  FROM  DUBLIN. 
A  New  Agricultural  School. 
After  the  lapse  of  nearly  fifty  years  the  wish  of  the  late  Mr 
Thomas  Downpatrick  is  verging  towards  realisation,  that  an  agricultural 
school  should  be  erected  and  maintained  at  his  expense  in  the  parish  of 
Down  The  new  institution  is  to  be  called  “  The  Ulster  Agricultural  and 
Dairy  School  and  Henry  Trust,”  and  it  is  the  first  building  of  its  kind  la 
the  northern  province.  As  the  usual  legal  formality  is  now  completed,  it 
only  awaits  the  sanction,  or  rather  the  signature  of  the  Lord  Chancellor. 
Lord  Dunleath,  William  .Johnston,  Esq..  iri.P.,  and  .John  Tate,  Esq.,.I.P.,. 
are  the  Trustees  selected  to  manage  the  institution,  and  Mr.  John  R. 
McConnell  is  the  appointed  Secretary. 
The  Roval  Horticultural  Society  of  Ireland. 
The  usual  monthly  meeting  of  the  Council  of  the  Horticultural  Society 
was  held  on  Tuesday  afternoon,  the  13th  in8t.,at  the  offices,  61,  Dawsoa 
