Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-08-25

binary prices for pork profit would hav,
ceased at about 200 pounds live weight.
Potato blight.
II has been definitely ascertsined that
spraying potato vines will help to pre-
vent the damage from potato blight
Trials with II different preparations
showed that the strong bordeaux mixture
gave the best results, though good re-
suits were also obtained from bordeaux
mixture and molasses, from weak Dor.
deaNx mixture from modified eau celeste.
The gain from spraying varied widely
On the average i'll the tests the gain wa:
about hundred bushels. In othel
words. the crop from the sprayed plots
was Just about double that Of the un
sprayed. Three applications Of the Dor
deaux mixture produced on the average
about one-third more gain than two ap
plicatiOns.
The bordeaux mixture costs about
cent per gallon. To make three applica
lions requires from 200 to 500 gallon,
per acre, and the cost for labor in apply
ing is about 81 an acre for each applica
ton. The total cost. therefore. Of spray
ing potatoes varies from $3.50 to S9.1'
per acre and averages about 80, no til,
profit for spraying is many times the cos
of the application.
The increased yield obtained where til,
plants are sprayed is principally due t.
the longer life IF the vines, allowing
them to grow a larger yield Of potatoes
There are two potato blights, name,
in order to distinguish them the early
and the late blight" 1t is known tina
the late blight can be prevented by tn
bordeaux mixture, and the indication
are that much Of the damage from tn
early blight can be prevented by tn
same. Spraying for the early bliyn
should begin the first week in July; 70
the late blight not until the last Of Jul,
or the first Of August.
Other Plant Diseases
Much time has been spent by the bot
anist in investigating several other plan
diseases. 1t was found that where tn
red ccdars in the vicinity of an apple or
chard were destroyed that the appl
rust, previously very bad i'll the orchard
entirely disappeared. a large orchar
WAS sprayed thoroughly for the proven
ton Of the apple scah. but the seaso
WAS 80 wet the solutions were washed OF
as fast as applied, and the resulting gai
in crop was not equal to the cost Of tn
labor.
Several greenhouse diseases have bee
investigated and much information OF
tanned concerning their occurrence an
characteristics. The experiments fo
their prevention have not yet progresse
far enough for n report. A peculia
trouble found on the tomato plants, an
which seriously reduced the crop, wa
found to be due to an excess Of water.
Dat Smut.
Further experiments have con6rme
the results obtained year ago thu
soaking the seed oats in hot water ei
tirely destroys the smut. An increase {
yield in addition to that produced by II
smut spores has been reported by severn
investigators. In the tests made la
summer no such increase was observe,
A very extended investigation Shove
that the loss from oat smut in this stat
where native seed is used, is about po
cent, and therefore not large enough
demand the Use of the hot water for an
other treatment for disinfecting the see'
1t also showed that the average loss fro
oat smut where western seed is used
much greater than where native seed
used, being in the samples examined ov'
three times Us great.
W. W. COOKE. Director.