Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1893-10-14
alesalts !ef SPRAYING.
Newspaper Bulletin. No. 10. |

Newspaper Bulletin. No. 10.l
In June Of the present year the
chronological department of the Ex-
pertinent Station undertook expert
ments TO determine the efficiency of
spraying with paris green in pre-
venting the destructiveness of the
codling meth, the parent of the
worm so injurious to the apple crop
of Nevada. Efforts in this direc-
ton have been made in previous
years, but they have been confined
to one, or at most, a few trees at a
place. In some of these cases the
result was very satisfactory, while
in others it was partially so. This
variation in results has without
doubt been chargeable to lack of
care in the application of the poison.
The results in these cases that were
satisfactory were quite apt not to be
considered as indicative of results
in field practice, owing to the small
number of trees treated in each case.
Thus it was to determine the cause
of former failures and to make the
condition of the experiment con-
form as nearly as possible to those
of actual field practice that the fol-
lowing work was performed.
A block of forty-eight trees in the
orchard of A. B. Williams, on Sixth
street, Reno, was selected for treat
ment, the remaining portion of the
orchard being left untreated to serve
as a check upon the work. To i'm
prove the conditions of the expert
ment in this respect the two adjacent
rows of the two portions Of the Or
.chard are of the same variety (the
Ben Davis and each was well laden
with fruit. The poison used was
paris green in water mixture at the
strength Of one pound to 1875 gallons
of water. During the process of
application much care was taken
that as complete mixture as possible
and thus a uniform strength should
be maintained. While care in this
respect permits the fruit to receive
more nearly uniform treatment, it
is most important in preventing the
injury to foliage due to too great
strength of poison, which tends to
settle to the bottom Of the vessel
from which it is drawn.
The first application was made
June 1st and I'd. The row of Ben
Davis trees vas given a second
treatment on J uae Oath. The re-
manning trees thus received but a
single application, that of June LIST
and ID. At the time of the first
treatment the blossoms were falling.
On the second application the aver
age size of the fruit was that of
walnut.
An examination of the orchard in
the second week in September, when
a fairly careful observation of the
trees was made in passing from one
to another, resulted in there being
found less than a dozen examples
of wormy fruit on the trees which
had received the preventive treat
ment. The row twice sprayed APP
parently had been much benefited
by the second application.
An examination of the portion of
the orchard not sprayed showed
large percentage of the fruit to be
wormy. This was particularly no.
ticeable on the row of Ben Davis
trees adjoining that Of the same ga
riety that aoas sprayed. The fallen
fruit naturally showed a greater
percentage injured, but the relative
proportion of such in the two parts
of the orchard seemed not material
ly different from that in the fruit
still on the trees.
1t is to be noted that the exami-
natien was not close one. Great
er care in, this respect would have
revealed more injured fruit from the
trees experimental upon. However,