Spraying and spray carts will be the subject of Orange and District Historical Society's next meeting in its popular fruit growing history series at the Gladstone Hotel on Tuesday, September 22 at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Pests have been a problem in orchards from the earliest days and spraying has been a major task for Orange district orchardists for more than 100 years.
Spraying was initially carried out by hand-pumps and later motor-driven pumps were introduced using hand wands.
Spray pumps were for many years horse-drawn, then merged into tractor-drawn in the 1950s. Booms and air-blast sprayers became the norm in the 1960s and 1970s until the present day.
There have been a number of weird and wonderful variations of all of these machines and there is no-one better to tell us the story than Eddie Wilson, of Forest Reefs, who has experimented with many types of sprayers.
Eddie won a Land Inventor of the Year award at the Australian National Field Days with a self-propelled, fully enclosed front mounted sprayer, which was developed for commercial production by his brother Don, the latest model of which was rolled out only last year.
A number of other “old hands” will be in the audience to add their stories.
The meeting takes place at the Gladstone Hotel function room at 7 for 7.30pm. There is a small charge of $3 for members of Orange and District Historical Society and $5 for non-members, to cover costs. Light refreshments will be served.
If you have any inquiries or would like to attend the meeting, please RSVP to Phil Stevenson on 6362-3257, mobile 0402 412 188 or email ibiswines@bigpond.com