Part 40 (1/2)

Don't you use dormant sprays?

Mr. Dunlap: I was just speaking about the dormant or winter spray. When you spray in the winter time use lime-sulphur or scalicide.

Mr. Richardson: Another thing: I take a little exception to what Mr.

Dunlap says in advocating buying a spraying machine collectively in the neighborhood, for the simple reason that it is necessary to spray at one particular time, at the vital time just before the blossoms fall and at the time they have fallen. We have found it almost impossible to do any spraying for anybody except ourselves at that time. We talked that matter over before we bought spraying machines.

You said you wondered whether there were any apples grown here commercially. Out of our town we s.h.i.+pped this year eight car-loads of apples. We have three power sprays in our orchard, and we talked that matter over before we bought them, about buying collectively, and we decided it was absolutely impossible to do it. I don't think it is feasible for a small grower to depend on that kind of thing because he may be disappointed. My theory is for each one to have his own sprayer, large or small. Another thing, we find a pressure of 200 pounds is better than spraying without that pressure; we get better results.

Mr. Dunlap: The gentleman misunderstood me. I said where you have just small orchards you could do it collectively. Of course, I do not advocate where a man has enough to have use for a spray machine for his own orchard that he get one collectively. That would be a great mistake, but where a man has only fifty trees in a neighborhood where there are no big orchards, it would be better for a dozen or more to combine. If you can get around with it in a week you will be all right but not longer than that.

Mr. Richardson: I beg to differ with you just the same. I think if you want to spray you must spray at the time; it might rain the next day, and you might miss the whole season.

Mr. Dunlap: There are a good many people who don't like to go to the expense of a spray machine just for fifty trees or 100 trees. If they would combine with a few neighbors they would do some spraying work, otherwise they wouldn't do any at all. If a man will buy a machine and do his own spraying, why, that is certainly the best thing to do, but if he won't do that it is better to combine with his neighbors and do it than for none of them to do it. Community spraying is the best thing to do if you have only small orchards.

Mr. Dyer: What pressure would you recommend in spraying for codling moth where a.r.s.enate of lead is used?

Mr. Dunlap: You can do effective spraying all the way from sixty pounds to 200 pressure. My preference is about 150 pounds. I have known instances where considerable injury was done by using too high pressure.

We have sprayed at 225 pounds, but we have given that up. It is not as good as from 150 to 175 pounds.

Mr. Dyer: I would like to know about what quant.i.ty of a.r.s.enate of lead and lime-sulphur combined would you recommend? How much of each?

Mr. Dunlap: In 100 gallons of water we put three gallons of the concentrated solution of lime-sulphur, as we buy it commercially, three gallons to 100 gallons of water, that is, for the summer spray, and for the a.r.s.enate of lead we use four pounds of a.r.s.enate of lead to the 100 gallons.

Mr. Dyer: In connection with that I would like to ask if you have used or would recommend pulverized lime-sulphur?

Mr. Dunlap: I haven't used any.

Mr. Dyer: Do you know anything about it?

Mr. Dunlap: I think it is a more expensive proposition.

Mr. Dyer: I never used any myself. I thought perhaps that might work better in connection with the a.r.s.enate of lead than the liquid.

Mr. Dunlap: I couldn't say, I have always followed the policy of never departing from well-established lines of work until I am satisfied that the new one is absolutely all right. I have seen in our state men destroy the fruit from a forty or eighty acre orchard by taking up some new thing that was highly advertised and looked very attractive. It is not the same proposition, of course, but they tell us the devil comes in very attractive form. He comes with a swallow-tail coat and a red necktie and a b.u.t.tonhole bouquet, and he looks very attractive. So it is with a lot of these things advertised; they look attractive but for our own good we ought to stick to the things we know and let the state experiment station try them and report upon them.

Mr. Huestis: Does Mr. Dunlap attribute the general dropping of apples to the scab fungus?

Mr. Dunlap: Not entirely.

Mr. Huestis: Do you think that it weakens the stem of the apples?

Mr. Dunlap: Yes, sir, the droppings of the apple is largely due to the scab fungus. Of course, some of the dropping occurs as the result of too much rain or too much dry weather, something of that kind, that is not attributable to scab fungus.

Mr. Kellogg: Does spraying injure the bees?

Mr. Dunlap: I have never had anybody prove to me that the bees were especially injured by spraying in the bloom. We do not practise spraying in the bloom, that is, we spray when we have about one-third of the bloom left on the trees. I have never had any injury, and we have orchardists who have bees in their orchards, and they go on spraying the same way. I do not believe bees are poisoned by the spray. Maybe I am mistaken about it, but I have never seen any conclusive proof of the bees being poisoned by the spray. It is possible they might collect it and carry it into the hives and might poison the brood in the hive. I don't know. I thank you. (Applause.)

The Value of Horticulture to the Farm.