The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-03-15
= he turned together. stirred thorough-

IN appear as white, Hocculent materlal,
VII filling the water The bucket should
ne he stirred and the entire contents
u,r 4 into fifty gallons of water, when it
nI ne ready for use This arsenate of lead
oon he purchased in the market under the
I'd name "Disparene," and in small guam
u will be found cheaper than one can
.nak it, but in large quantities you can
ok, your own cheaper than you can buy
# regard this arsenate of lead as by far
~ aest arsenical poison ever devised for
nra,ing plants against biting insects. 1t
has many advantages over the other ar
sencal insecticides. In the first place 1t
does not require the use OF lime. ana
uonce does not tend to stop up the spray
o1zfe 1t stays suspended in the water
nue. longer than any other insecticide
md therefore req Tires very little stirring
fter the liquid has been thoroughly stirred
and the wagon tank started through the
orchard AS the mixture is white. one can
readily exactly where and to what ex-
tent he is spraying. And it stays on the
foliage of plants much longer than any
other arsenical poison When put on in
GOOD quantities it will frequently with
stand month of ordinary rainy weather
And above all, it also has the advantage
Of not njuring the foliage of any plant, no
natter how strong it may be made nor
how much may be applied, unless it be the
peach tree, which, in some cases, is injured
by the of this material, although in
most cases injury seems to result. How
ever in those cases where injury has been
observed from the use of arsenate OF lead
on the peach, no other arsenical poison can
he used. 1 would not advise the spraying
of the peach tree except under very UNI
usual circumstances, and even then one
should test a few trees in order to see
that injury results"
There is nothing to be dreaded
more by the fruit grower than the
pear blight. In many cases it wipes
out whole orchards. There is no in
fallible remedy known. The knife
properly applied seems to be the best
remedy but this sometimes fails. Ma
jor Holsinger, whom the Rural North
west recently pushed over into Mis-
souri,, but with the help of the editor
of this department, was dragged back
to Kansas, where he belongs, recently
heard of a man in Johnson county,
Kansas, who was reported to be max
ing a successful fight against pear
blight by spraying with salt. Major
Holsinger was so impressed with
what he heard that he sought this
man and had a talk with him. This
resulted in the Major asking Mr.. Beck
ley, the man referred to, to write out
his method of treatment for the West
ern Fruit-Grower, and here it is:
up to the year 1897 I had spent consid-
cradle money and patience on pear trees.
l had set them in sod, in rich and in poor
SOL, but about the time they began to bear
fruit they would blight, and often much
younger. Some cultivated and some ala
not; they blighted just the same. was
told to cut away the blighted part anu
burn it, and that would stop it, but that
failed BY this time l had got down to
one little sckly pear tree stub OF the
Duchess variety and my patience was badly
with the pear business Having some very
strong salt-meat brine that 1 wanted to
get rid of l concluded 1 would use some of
it in killing this pear tree and go out
of the business, as 1 had always been told
never to apply salt to a fruit tree, as II
would surely kill it, But in place of killing
it it only grew more vigorous and stronger,
and this last season bore a crop OF pears
Since that time I have been setting out
pear trees and spraying them with salt
brine strong enough to bear an egg half
way out of the water 1 have thirty pear
trees now, and most of them bearing. Have
not had any blight since l began to spray
with salt brine eight years ago, except SIX
which did not spray test. The result
Is they are all dead dying from blight
This spraying with the salt brine must De
done the first of March, or just before the
sap starts up If done after the tree puts
out its buds or leaves it will surely die
And as a preventive the spraying must be
done annually. Salt applied to the roots
OF the trees won't do, as the blight does
not originate in on the roots, but usually
tree therefore it is an outward disease ana
hA had nv ar