The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1893-07-29
,rtl . 7I5 e z.. W. IS. 3.
THE FARM AND HOME.
EORMS OF OTATO BLIGHT
s's AND ITS REMEDIES. "A
Spraying With Fungicides Is Cure for
the Fungus Disease Keep the Best
q Lam bs-sugar Beets for sugar-Farm
Notes and Homo Hints. s4
Potato slight. )

y E
i Country Gentleman, says there are
i two entirely different diseases that
are known as potato blight and are
| very destructive to the crop. The
first, which is best and longest
| known and has been most fully de-
scribed in the Phytoph ora infestans,
is a true fungus disease, the other is
a bacterial disease which has been
very little studied, but which, it is
believed, caused fully as much iftnot
more loss to potato growers than the
phytophora. 1t is not easily traced
and it's comings and goings are not
we'll understood, but its effects are
very serious. Professor Jones of the
| Vermont experiment station, calls
this comparatively new disease a
"bacterial blight" and Professor
Halstead of New Jersey, believes it
to be Identical with the sssouthern
potato blight.' Professor Green mar
rates his own experience with these
two diseases and in doing So de-
scribes their different effects quite
fully. He says:
my experience with these diseases
has been of such character as to
give me much interest in them. In
the year 1888 I put out field of
about four acres of potatoes on fairly
good land without any special prepar-
alton. The season proved quite fav-
orable, with plenty of rain during the
latter part of the season, and the
yield was nearly 300. bushels per
acre. But when I came to dig them
l found there were many rotten ones,
and after digging they did not stop
rotting. In one pile of 80 bushels,
after lying two weeks, fully one-half
were spoiled. This was my first ex-
perience with what I am now certain
was the fungus disease.
In the years 1885-6-7, I increased
my acreage about ten acres each
year, but in not any of these seasons
was there the least trouble with rot
ten potatoes; yet did not succeed in
getting a yield of over 100 bushels
per acre, and one year much less
than that, although the crop was put
out with great care on land well
adapted to potato growing and quite
fertile, for the wheat which followed
the potatoes gave an average yield of
about thirty-fve bushels per acre for
the three years. Each year the crop
would start out in fine shape, but
about the middle of June, during the
rapid growth of the vines, tender
shoot here and there would be seen
Ito wilt, and then, Notwithstanding
| favorable weather, their growth
would come to standstill, the leaves
showed black patches near the
edges and in four to six weeks
the vines would be standing
straight up. with the dead leaves
hanging around them in a melan-
choly way; in few weeks more they
would be dried up, and by the first OF
September the crop would be ready
to dig. The late potatoes lasted only
a week or two longer than the early
ones: No signs of rot could be seen;
on the contrary, the potatoes kept
exceedingly well. The only sign oil
disease was slight discoloration OF
the flesh near the stem. This is bac-
terial disease, but the loss is not felt
as much, because to lose thing be-
fore we get it is not so bad as to lose
it when we once have it in our pos.
session.
AS to the fungus disease it yields
measurably well to spraying with
fungicides, but for the bacterial dis
ease no remedy has yet been discov-
cred upon which reliance can be
placed. Some spaliatives, however,
are given which appear to have val.
ue. Good soil, good seed, good prepa
ration of the ground and good after
cultivation give the plants resisting
power which enables them to {
greater or less degree to live through
the attack if it comes. It is also
believed that the bacteria appears
quite regularly at it's appointed time
in the season, and that therefore
quite early or quite late planting
will, in many localities, give com
parative immunity by reason of thu
plant in the one case getting fa
enough along to resist the effects O
the attack on the one hand, or no
being far enough advanced to con
tract it on the other.
Something, too, may be gained b,
careful selection of the seed, says tn
Kansas City Live Stock Indicator
AS the germ lives over the winter
advantage is found in rejecting al
seed that show any indications Q
blight, however slight. There i
also believed to be a very substantial
difference in the capacity Of differen
varieties to resist blight, and on
noted agricultural writer OF. Franc
has divided the varieties of tina
country into two classes using thei
resistant or non-resistant power a
the basis Of, classification. Professo
Green thinks that the Rose tamil,
: owes much of it's long life to it
power Of resisting blight, while o
. the other hand the smooth, roun
J white class, such as the Snowfak
:. and Charles Downing, have q niue
lower resisting power. These hov
ever, are only tentative hints as
the means. Of protecting the pota1