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Show GENERAL IDEA OF SPRAYING ON FARM j ''JwW3!i'-lV - r igt. r- " " A Michigan Apple Orchard. Every year more people wish to learn to spray. Sometimes they want to keep the worms out of apples; or perhaps their potatoes have had bugs on them, or have died of blight. - Most of your neighbors cnow nothing noth-ing about spraying. Every year the country is becoming more settled up, the birds are being killed off, and the insects are getting more plentiful. If you have more than a half-acre of orchard, or an acre of potatoes, it will almost certainly pay to spray. Of course, if you are short of help on the farm, it may be best to let the bugs and blight do their worst, says a writer in Wallace's Farmer. The the most important to keep worms out of apples. A moth lays worm eggs in the blossom end of the young apple. ap-ple. These eggs hatch into small worms, which eat their way through this end of the apple into the inside. The object of the spraying is to put some of the poison spray into the blossom blos-som end of each little green apple. You will notice that this end of the green apple has five green sepals. Immediately Im-mediately after the blossom falls, these are spread out much in the form of a blossom. But a few days later they turn inward. It is very important impor-tant that the spraying be done while they are still turned outward. If it is done after they have started to turn inward, it is impossible to get much of the spray in where the worms will eat it. Since young apples point upward, up-ward, the spraying, so far as possible, possi-ble, should be done from above, so that the spray mist will shoot downward down-ward straight into the blossom ends. So far as worms are concerned, a thorough thor-ough spraying given just after the blossoms have fallen is worth more than all of the other three sprayings. In fact, in some regions where the worm of the codling moth is the chief enemy of apples, they give only this single spray, the one just after the blossoms have fallen off. 3. Spray ten to twenty days after the blossoms have fallen, with the same mixture as for one and two. This catches a few of the worms after they have hatched, and the lime sulphur put on at this time is a great help in preventing blotch, rot and scab. 4. The last spraying is given about ten weeks after the blossoms have fallen. At this time the second brood of the codling moth lays more eggs. This brood does not cause much dam- Time for First Spraying. spraying of apples and potatoes comes in late May, June ' and July, and is likely to interfere with other work. It is rather bothersome unless you study the matter carefully and order all the machinery and spraying material beforehand. be-forehand. Probably you never did any spraying, and when you start in at the Job, you will make mistakes which will disgust you. In Nebraska they sprayed a total of 3,300 trees for four years. Other trees in the same orchard were not sprayed. The result was an increase of two bushels per tree in favor of those sprayed. The product from the average unsprayed tree sold for 81 cents, while that of the sprayed trees brought $2.35. Spraying In the average aver-age year in Nebraska seems to increase in-crease the value of the apple crop $77 on the average for each acre. In other oth-er words, the profits of one year's spraying would pay not only for the spraying materials, but also for the spraying machinery. The Kansas experiment station has found that spraying increased the yield per tree by four bushels, worth $1.62. In Missouri, a big orchardist sprayed 100 of his trees and left 3,600 of them unsprayed. He claimed that he got more from his 100 sprayed trees than he did from the 3,600 unsprayed. Apples are sprayed chiefly to keep worms, scab, blotch and rot away. Lead arsenate kills worms, and lime-sulphur lime-sulphur solution prevents the growth of rot, scab and blotches. To keep these pests and diseases away, give four sprayings, as follows: 1. In the spring, when the pink is just appearing in the clusters of blossoms, blos-soms, and the leaves are about the size of your little finger nail. Mix one and a half gallons of commercial lime-sulphur and two pounds of arsenate arse-nate of lead "with fifty gallons of water. wa-ter. Put this in your spraying machine, ma-chine, and go over every tree, seeing that all the leaves are coated with a fine spray mist. The ordmary fifteen or twenty-year-old tree will take three or four gallons of spray. When you Ready for Third Spraying. age, but it will probably pay to spray, Lime-sulphur at this time continues to help prevent rot, scab and blotch. In the average year this system of spraying means that one spraying must be given in late April or early May, another one about the middle of May, another the latter part of May, and another about the latter part of July. You can figure out for yourself how much spraying at these seasons of the year would interfere with the rest of your work. If you would like to spray, but feel that you have time for only one spraying, give the second sec-ond one, just after the blossoms have fallen. Time for Second and Most Important Spraying. are putting on the spray mixture, you will have a chance to use good Judgment. Judg-ment. You must watch from what direction di-rection the wind is coming. You must practice until you are skillful at spraying spray-ing a tree thoroughly and quickly. The lime-sulphur spray is likely to chap the face and hands. You had best put gloves on your hands and smear vaseline vas-eline over the face. 2. This spraying is done Just as soon as the blossoms have fallen, the same mixture being used as for the first spraying. Of all sprayings, this is |