The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-11-19
Spraying Trees and Cost Of ontflts.

Spraying Trees and Cost Of Outfits.
AS the time is near at hand for
fall spraying, to rid trees of scale
insects, and as many inquiries in re-
gard to the lime-sulphur wash, the
kind of spraying apparatus to use
and cost of the same, have been re-
ceived at the Division of the Penn
sylvania Department of Agriculture,
the following reply by the head of
the Division, Prof. H. A. Surface,
State Zoologist, will suffice for all,
and will be of interest to every per-
son in Pennsylvania owning fruit
trees, whether few or many:
You can either make your own
lime-sulphur solution and destroy the
scale by it's use, making this material
by boiling together the lime and
sulphur, or you can buy 1t ready
made inthe concentrated form, ready
to dilute with eight times it's bulk of
water, and spray on the trees and
kill the scale. 1t Is cheaper to make
1t, but where you have only a few
trees, it Is more troublesome. Either
form will kill the scale If applied
strong enough, and neither will hurt
the trees II applied at any strength
whatever. The home-boiled lime
sulphur Is made by boiling four
pounds of sulphur (either flowers or
flour) with five and one-half pounds
Of quick lime, and water enough to
boil them, and afterward add enough
water to make the total bulk not
more than twelve gallons. Strain
this well. The straining is very i'm
portant. Clogging of nozzles and
sloppy work Is generally due to lack
of proper straining. The best way
to strain Is to use brass wire cloth
thirty meshes to the inch, setting
it at an angle across the funnel, or
built as cone with the point stand
ing upright in the strainer funnel.
SPRAY the lime-sulphur wash
! (either homemade or commercially
| directly over the trees at any time
after the leaves are off, giving them
two good coats, one from each SIDE
Take advantage of an opposite wind
to spray the opposite side of the tree.
Repeat this in the spring when the
buds are swelling.
"You can buy of most seedsmen
| inexpensive spraying apparatus. For
such trees as you have at present a
complete outfit, costing not more
than five dollars, would serve the
purpose. Nearly all manufacturers
of spraying material make these
small and cheaper sprayers, which
N tho af
sprayers, bucket sprayers, compressed
al rtanks or knapsack sprayers. The
highest price that they should cost
should not be more than ten dollars,
and from some manufacturers a
cheap outfit can be bought for one
third this amount. Every person
growing even few trees and shrubs
should have his own spraying appara-
tus of the size and power adapted to
his needs.
You can not expect to keep your
trees free from scale by preventive
means. The point is to spray them
when they are infested, and thus keep
the scale under control. There Is
really no need of spraying for scale
at a time when it is not present.
The quantity of the lime-sulphur
solution to be prepared as given
above, is for the owner of few trees.
In regular orchard work, it is pre-
ferable to never make less than a
5O-gallon quantity at one time, when
the proportions of materials used
are II pounds of sulphur and %
pounds of lime, boiled together as
stated above. One hour of thorough
boiling is necessary"