The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-04-01
SPRAYING AS A BUSINESS.
Should he Read by all Growers OF
Fruit.


Fruit.
There is a demand IN every agri-
cultural district for some enterpris-
ing person to take hold of the spray
ing business and thereby establish
himself in profitable means of live
lihood A leading manufacturer of
Central Pennsylvania recently asked
for the opinion of Prof. II. A. Sur
face, the State Zoologist, in regard
to this matter, and the following Is
what the Professor wrote in reply:
81 agree with you that there is
considerable profit in operating a
spraying outfit. The great difficulty
seems to be that while the incidental
cost of spraying is not great, per-
sons who would be willing to do the
work, at a net profit of from three to
five dollars per day, do not have
money to buy the outfit There are
many laborers who would consider
this excellent wages. and would be
quite willing to do the spraying, but
do not have the means. Yet a man
with money, and established in other
business, will not attempt to make a
business of spraying trees for hardly
any price. 1t must be acknowledged
that it is very disagreeable work, yet
/ think it no worse than that of an
engineer or fireman, and not as bad
as mining and a great deal of other
work done readily by people in this
State. I have for some time advo-
Gated a good public spraying outfit
operating in each township in the
State, and am satisfied that If ii
be done by one who understands his
business, and who is careful to do
it right, thus obtaining good results,
it would continue to be mutually
profitable to all persons concerned.
II know of no one in your locality
who is doing this, although in some
parts of the State it is now being
done with gratifying results.
could take the average orchard and
spray it for half of the excess profits
above what the owner has been re-
ceiving by the old method, and could
make considerable for me and for
him also in the way of absolutely
clear profit. This is real value pro-
duction, because there are more
and better fruits on sprayed trees
than on those that are unsprayed
THE outfit for this purpose should
consist of good power pump and two
long leads of hose with nozzles, and
also a boiling-kettle and a cart for
pulling the apparatus. A one-horse
wagon would do for this. The best
power for such pump would
doubtless be a gasoline engine, but
would certainly recommend nothing
less than horizontal cylinder pump
working by a vertical lever that
would have horizontal swing, or, in
other words, swing to and fro, in
stead of up and down. The hose
should be heavy, three-ply hose with
at least thirty feet to each lead
and each carrying two good nozzles
/ like the "Mistry Junior Friend
or the Brown" The boiling ket-
ties may be ordinary galvanized
/ iron, or even large-sized washtubs.
THE charges are sometimes by
the day, sometimes by the gallon
I and often by the tree. | know of one
man who charges from 10 to rs
cents per tree, according to the size
The latter price includes pruning
1t seems to me that a proper method
of establishing a charge would be
for the operator to try it, and keep
a record of the amount and value OF
material, and the value of the in
vestment, and also his own time
and charge such an amount as will
allow him fair profit, when these
features are all considered. 1t is
certain in my mind that spraying
is one of the occupations that will
give really good profitable returns
both to the employer and the en-
ployee.