Dissolve the sulphate of copper in a wooden vessel, pouring in sufficient water to cover the coarse bag in which the sulphate should have been placed. Attach the bag by means of a string to a rod placed across the vessel, and let it hang in the water. In another vessel add water gradually to the lime until a thick paste is formed; when cool mix the two together in a third vessel, and add water up to 40, 50 or 60 gallons. If the mixture is properly made, a clean knife blade held for one minute in the solution should remain unchanged; if coated with copper, add more lime until no copper adheres to the blade. Stir the mixture constantly while spraying and use it fresh. Spray the trees when the buds are first expanding. Messrs Bunyard (Fruit Catalogue, 1901-2) recommend "6 lbs. of pure sulphate of copper, 4 lbs. fresh unslaked lime, and 22 gallons of water, the sulphate to be put in a piece of sacking or light cloth, and hung by a string from the top of a barrel containing 18 gallons of water, a few inches below the surface so as to dissolve. Then slack 4 lbs. of fresh lime in as small a quantity of water as possible, the water being added very slowly, until slaking is completed; then slowly make up to 4 gallons. When cool, thoroughly stir and strain slowly the milk of lime into the copper solution, stirring well while mixing for another minute or two; it is then fit for use as a winter spray. It should be used when freshly made, (_a_) Apply before buds start to all fruit trees with the 22 gallons mixture. This can be diluted to a 30, 50 or 60 gallons mixture for spring or summer use. (_b_) Spray again just as the petals drop with the 60 gallons mixture. If made and applied as above (within ten or twenty hours) it adheres closely to the wood and foliage; treacle need not be added." This adhesion is of vast importance, as lime is abhorred by stem-borers (_e.g._, the goat and leopard moths) as well as by all insects. The double application of lime is also helpful. In the United States Paris Green is sometimes added, and is no doubt useful; the proportion must be very small. 3. For many years I have painted my trees in winter with the following mixture: one bushel of lime, half a bushel of soot, a quart of paraffin, a pail of cow dung, a pail of clay; melted grease is sometimes added, and the whole worked into a paint and then put on the trees. Treacle might be substituted for the cow dung and grease. This has proved a valuable preventive. The lime and soot gradually falling off, leave the bark clean, and enrich the soil below. But painting is a much longer process than spraying with (1) or (2). Apples have subsequently been sprayed with Paris Green, and pears might also be. INSECT ENEMIES