The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1914-04-08
IT IS ALMOST TIME
TO SPRAY THE FRUIT
PERFECT PEACHES AND APPLES
CAN BE SECURED ONLY BY
SPRAYING TREES.
WHEN AND HOW TO SPRAY
State Department of Entomology Tells
What Materials to Use and
How to Use Them.

peach tree or ten thousand, and want
perfect fruit, you must spray to get
1t. Likewise, if you want to get per-
feet apples On one tree or thousands
OF them, spraying with the proper
materials and at the proper time is
absolutely essential.
And spraying time is about here.
Within ten days or two weeks after
the blooms have fallen from the trees,
the first spraying should be given, and
others should be given as indicated.
There are certain insects and dis
eases which attack the fruit, which
can be controlled in no other way,
State Entomologist E. Lee Worsham
points out; and unless these insects
and diseases are controlled, there can
be no perfect fruit.
Peach growers all over Georgia
should be getting ready now to fight
the plum curculio and the brown rot,
Mr.. Worsham says, for if they do not
this bug and disease are likely to
claim heavy toll of Georgias biggest
money making fruit
Every orchard grower is familiar
with these pests, but many of those
who have only few trees and do
not make study of bugs and other
things that affect them, often wonder
why their fruit is wormy and why ii
rots on the trees before it ripens.
The Bug That Makes the Worm.
The plum curculio is the little bug
that makes the big fat worms grow
inside of the pretty peach, and which
the too eager teeth sometimes strike
before investigating. The brown rot
is fungus growth which attacks the
fruit as it approaches maturity and
causes it to rot on the trees before it
is ready to be picked for market The
loss from brown rot has frequently
been as high as Is to so per cent, and
sometimes as high as 95 per cent,
where its development is encouraged
by damp, wet weather.
There is way to control both these
pests and produce perfect fruit 1t
requires a little effort and a small
expense, but the results are we'll worth
it.
The curculio is controlled by spray
ing with a solution of arsenate of lead
in the proportion of 2 pounds to so
gallons of water, to which is added
milk of lime solution made from three
pounds of stone lime. The trees should
be sprayed with this solution at least
twice in the spring, the first time just
as the calyces or shucks are shedding,
which will be ordinarily about ten days
or two weeks after the pink blooms
have fallen, and the second time about
two to three weeks later. Weak trees
should never be sprayed more than
twice, but in healthy, vigorous or
chards where the foliage growth is
dense, three applications are recon-
mended. This plan carefully followed
will keep the worms out of the
peaches.
For brown rot Independently of cur
culio, there should be at least two
sprayings with homemade lime sui
phur solution which will be described;
one shortly after the calyces or shucks
have fallen and the other about four
weeks later.
Spraying for Both.
But it is usual and most often nee
essary to spray for curculio and brown
rot at the same time, when three
sprayings are used as follows:
First Spraying.-About the time the
calyces or shucks are shedding, using
solution of pounds arsenate of lead
and pounds stone lime to SO gal
Ions of water.
Second Spraying. - About three
weeks later using self-boiled lime-sul-
phur solution and arsenate of lead
combined, in the proportion of pounds
of lime, pounds Of sulphur and 2
pounds of arsenate of lead to so gal
Ions of water.
Third Spraying.-About four weeks
after the second, using the self-boiled
lime-sulphur solution alone, without
the arsenate of lead.
The last spraying for brown rot
should be made at least 30 days before
the fruit ripens.
If the curculio is numerous and the
trees are hardy and strong, arsenate of
lead may be added for the third spray
ing.
The chronological department be-
lieves three sprayings necessary to
get the best results, but fairly good
results have been obtained from two
applications by using the self-boiled
lime-sulphur solution with arsenate of
lead just after the calyces or shucks
have fallen, and second application
of the same mixture about four weeks
later.
The Lime-Suphur Solution.
The self-boiled lime-sulphur prepare
ton should be made with great deal
of care, as follows: Take "a pounds
of lime and "a pounds of sulphur; put
the sulphur into 50-gallon barrel
and make into thin paste by SLOW
" adding cold water and stirring un-
til the sulphur is all moist. Stirring
is necessary to prevent sulphur from
Jumping. To the sulphur paste add
enough cold water to make six gal