AN OBJECT LESSON IN SPRAYING FRUIT TREES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1163, 15 June 1894, Page 5

AN OBJECT LESSON IN SPRAYING FRUIT TREES.

The codlin moth renders one-third of the apple crop unfit for market. The wormy apples are worth but little, more than the cost of harvesting, for feeding purposes, and a good deal of time is wasted in sorting them out of those fit to barrel. The buyer disparages the fruit and tries to buy it cheaper on accoant of their presence, although he does not intend to allow one of them to go into the barrel. Why have them at all, when it is so easy to prevent their ravages, and the process of accomplishing it is so simple ? Poison the worm before it enters the apple, which is done by placing Paris green on its food. If the poison is washed off by rain before the worms hatch out it must be replaced. The apples point upward until after the blossoms fall, and the cup-shaped end catches the tiny drop of water which car Vies the poison with it. The most effective spraying is done at this time. Thß only caution to be observed is not to use too much poison, as this would injure the foliage. One pound of poison to two hundred gallons of water is sufficient. The addition of one pailful of fresh slaked lime to each fifty gallons of water avoids injury to the foliage, and is an aid in preventing washing off by rain. The lime clogs most of the ordinary nozzles, which has been a bar to its use; but by the use of an automatic nozzle there is no trouble. Should any coarse piece of lime or grit obstruct the passage, the spring is forced up and the opening is enlarged so that the obstacle can fly out, when the spring pushes the parts back in place as before. Last spring the lower part of one side of a Rhode Island Greening tree was sprayed at I the time the blossoms were falling.J About one-sixth of the tree received '

j enough of the spray to wet it thoroughly. There was no hard rain for several weeks, and a second spraying was not needed. At harvesting time the branches of the sprayed portion were bent to the ground. A good many defective apples had fallen from the unsprayed part of the tree during the summer, and are not included in this report. A careful count gave the following result :

The sprayed apples were larger, of a better colour, and freer from scab. It required 144 apples of the unsprayed, and 133 of the sprayed for a bushel. There was a noticeable difference in the colour and smoothness of the sprayed fruit which I cannot account for, unless t it be perfect healthfulness of foliage and fruit, as I have never seen the above effect claimed as a result of using Paris green alone. The results obtained from three seasons' experiments make me a firm believer in the efficacy of spraying with Paris green and the Bordeaux mixture to produce sound fruit. No fruit grower can afford to neglect such cheap methods of insuring his fruit against attack by insects, worms and fungi.—C E. Chapman, in the American Agriculturist.

tn V o> P. Pi <1 a 0 O w <u ft P. p. g g O H ■ a o *J q> M -Fl </} r—• £ 3 3 <* pa {> Spraye'l 5:U 48 Ungpraycd .. .. 216 92 Whole tree if sprayed .. — — Whole tree not sprayed — — Balance in favour of spraying 4 11-2 24 14-5 1-4 $3.00 3-4 1.12 — 18.00 — 1.35 .. 16.05