LIME AND MILK FOR FRUIT TREES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 44, 23 August 1907, Page 3

LIME AND MILK FOR FRUIT TREES.

The good results of applying a coat of whitewash to the fruit trees in the orchard are generally known, in farm orchards as well as in commercial ones. As a rule, the plain lime whitewash is used, but its lasting qualities are not the very best. A very good mixture for this purpose, and one that has been found highly successful on a great many farms, is made from lime and skim milk. The lime is slaked in the ordinary way, .and instead of being thinned with water, it is thinned with skim milk. The mixture is then applied as any other whitewash, and it is found to set much more firmly and securely than the plain wash. The skim milk tends to produce a more elastic wash and one more impervious to the elements. This skim milk paint, as it is called, seems to be nearer a paint than any of the water mixtures for this purpose. Buildings may be painted with this admixture with very good results, for it seems to last fully as long as some paints, and it is a good deal cheaper. One of the good results of applying a white mixture to the trunks of tr-ees is that the white trunks reflect the pf the sun.