Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1909-11-25
THE COST Of
SPRAYING TREES

AS the time is near at hand for fall
spraying, to rid trees of scale insects,
and us many inquiries i'll regard to the
lime sulphur wash, the kind of spray
ing apparatus to use and cost of the
same, have been received at the divis-
ion of the Pennsylvania department Of
agriculture, the following reply by the
head of the division, Professor II. A.
Surface, State zoologist, Will suffice
for all, and Will be of interest to every
person in Pennsylvania owning fruit
trees, whether few or many:
"You can either make your own
lime sulphur solution and destroy the
scale by its use, making this material
by boiling together the lime and sui
phur, or you can buy it ready made in
the concentrated form, ready to dilute
with eight times its bulk of water. and
spray ON the trees and kill the scale.
1t is cheaper TO make it, but where
You have only few trees, it is more
troublesome. Either form will kill the
scale if applied strong enough, and
neither will hurt the trees if applied
at any strength whatever. The home
boiled lime-sulphur is made by boiling
four pounds of sulphur (either flowers
or tlour) with five an / nne-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 we'll
The straining is very important. Clog
ging of nozzle and sloppy work is gen
orally 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 fun
mel, or built as a cone with the point
standing upright in the strainer fun
mel. 'Spray the lime-sulphur wash
teithor homemade or commercially di-
rectly 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 srpay
the opposite side of the tree. Repeat
this in the spring when the buds are
swelling.
You can buy Of most seedsmen in
expensive spraying apparatus For
such trees as you have ut present
complete outfit, costing not more than
five dollars, would serve the purpose.
Nearly all manufacturers of spraying
material make these small and cheap
er spraye1s, which are generally i'll the
form Of hand sprayers, bucket spray
ers, compressed an tanks or knapsack
sprayers. The higheS, price that they
should cost should not be more than
ten dollars, and from some manufactur- |
ers cheap outfit can be bought for
one-third this amount Every person |
growing even few trees and shrubs |
should have his own spraying appar-
atus of the size and power adapted to !
his needs.
"You need 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 real |
ly no need of spraying for scale at a
time when it is not present The !
qauntity of the lime-sluphur solution
to be prepared, as given above, is for !
the owner of few trees. In regular
orchard work, it is preferable to never |
make less than so gallon qauntity at
one time, when the proportions of |
materials used are II pounds of sui
phur and % pounds of lime, boiled to-
gether as stated above. One hour of
thorough boiling is necessary"