The daily sentinel., 1913-01-07
tBy George p. Weldon.l


The necessity for thoroughness in
spraying is recognized by every one
who has had any experience in fight
ing our worst insect pests. Writers
on spraying have urged that thor
oughness is one Of the most import
ant factors entering into the spray
ing operation. While such urging is
entirely justifiable, | sometimes feel
that too little has been said about
preparation for thoroughness. This
is certainly true in the case of many
of our orchards where more time
spent in heavy and intelligent prun-
ing and less in spraying would result
in much more effective work than is
sometimes done. Orchards have been
observed time and again which had
not seen a pruning saw for years;
where the growth of the branches
was such as to exclude the sun al
most entirely from the center of the
trees; where the fruit was small and
poorly colored; where codling-moth
found conditions entirely favorable
for its survival, and yet when the
owner was asked why his fruit was
wormy he would reply that the arsen-
ate of lead that he sprayed with was
not good. Such orchards defy proper
spraying, or at least require so much
spray to do the work we'll that the
average orchardist would rather grub
up the trees than spend the necessary
money to spare them. While this
statement may be slightly overdrawn
il is not far from the truth, as any
investigator who has studied spraying
problems will have to admit
The horticulturist urges regular
and systematic pruning of the or
chard Just as emphatieally as the en-
tomologist urges thorough spraying.
Heavy pruning of old trees does not
usually become necessary when each
season after planting, moderate, care
ful pruning is done. II does become
necessary in extreme cases where ear
lier pruning has been neglected, and
the time has come when serious
pest infects the orchard, else the
spraying in all probability will be
insufficient to control this pest.
Many striking examples of this re-
lation between pruning and spraying
were observed inSorchards where the
leaf-roller has been doing SO much
damage of late years aWhere trees
have been allowed f,c grow to, an ab-
normal height and the. upper branch
es have not been reached with the
spray, they have lost a much higher
percentage of their. foliage from the
attack of the larvae than branches
lower down where spraying could be
more easily done. This same condi-
tion has very often been observed
where codlins-moth was the pest
sprayed for instead of leaf roller. 1t
must hold true when spraying for
any pest, whether it feeds on the
bark, fruit or foliage. If it is at all
pi evalent.
There are orchard trees in Colora-
do that offer resistance to thor
ough spraying so great that our high
pressure power sprayers are insult
ficient to overcome it altogether. Be-
fore spraying should be attempted in
such cases the trees should be cut
back to reasonable height and all
the interfering and surplus branches
should be taken out, thus making the
tree low enough SO that the topmost
branches may be easily sprayed, and
the head open enough SO that each
branch may get its share Of the
liquid.
Trees that would properly require
from 20 TO 25 gallons of spray for
the most thorough work could prob
ably be well SPRAYED with ten gallons
when pruned as they should be.
The control of well established
insect pest is often no easy matter.
notwithstanding the fact that we may
have access to the improved modern
power spraying machines; the insec-
ticide used may be perfectely reliable
in controlling the pests we spray for.
and yet we may fail because of hav-
ing to do our spraying under unfavor-
able conditions. In the orchard moth
ing can be more unfavorable than
\ tall. bushy, neglected trees.