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Show !; Horticultural Facts i Spraying Farm Orchards Found Quite Profitable The oilier clay a well-known Iuvva fanner who ls a director In his county farm bureau said that In his county tlie fiirm bureau was attracting members mem-bers by the organization of spray rings, and that he thought In that one county nt least ten big new power sprayers would be at work next year in the farm orchards. It was In 1019 that the first spraying spray-ing demonstration was held In the county, and the enthusiasm has grown by leaps and bounds. It is not only strong ln Its county but in adjoining ones, says a writer ln the Successful Farming. What ls the cause of this enthusiasm over spraying? One thing, it ls profitable. Just how profitable spraying may be ls well demonstrated by the experience ex-perience of Karl Meier, an Iowa man. Ills orchard was given four sprays during the season, the experiment station sta-tion recommendations being closely followed. Careful record was kept of the cost. It cost thirty-five cents a tree for the material. Depreciation on the pump was about three cents, and the labor cost was forty-one cents. Note that Mr. Meier was actually paid for his labor on a day wage basis, something by the way, which ought to be done in figuring the cost of corn and pork and beef and other farm products. This makes a total cost less than eighty cents per tree. One tree was left unsprayed, to see what It would do, and to compare it with the sprayed trees. It produced 303 Dounds of aunles of which only 13.5 per cent or about forty-one pounds were clean. Scabby and wormy apples comprised the balance. Now how about the sprayed tree? An accurate record ls impossible because be-cause the great American traveling public entered the orchard and appropriated ap-propriated to its own use a share of the apples from the test tree. Rest assured, the American public did not take any scabby or wormy apples away. Even with the loss of a part of Its production the sprayed Wealthy tree yielded. 273 pounds of apples to their rightful owner, and of these 81.6 per cent or better than 222 pounds were clean, absolutely free from scabs and worms. In spite of the loss of some crop, the worthwhile clean fruit, fruit fit to store, from the sprayed tree was better than five times the quantity had from the unsprayed un-sprayed tree, all for a cost of eighty cents. Over three bushels and a half extra of sound fruit returned for the expense of spraying Is not at all an extraordinary result. There has been time after time even more startling results from spraying. But note thnt the American public wants sprayed fruit when it has its choice, and the wormy, scabby, gnarly stuff will be left till the last. This runs true whether it is a small boy in the orchard or a housekeeper with a market basket. |