The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-08-18

vent the damage from potato blight.
Trials with 10 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.
deaux mixture from modified eau celeste.
{. The gain from spraying varied widely,
On the average in the tests the gain was
about q hundred bushels. In other
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.
tions requires from 200 to 500 gallons
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 $9.75
per acre and averages about So, so the
profit for spraying is many times the cost
of the application.
The increased yield obtained where the
plants are sprayed is principally due to
the longer life of the vines, allowing
them to grow larger yield of potatoes.
There are two potato blights, named
in order to distinguish them the "early'
and the slate blight" 1t is known that
the late blight can be prevented by the
bordeaux mixture, and the indications
are that much of the damage from the
early blight can be prevented by the
same. Spraying for the early blight
should begin the first week in July; fol-
the late blight not until the last of July
or the first of August.
Other Plant Diseases.
Much time has been spent by the bot.
anist in investigating several other plant
diseases. 1t was found that where the
red cedars in the vicinity of an apple or.
chard were destroyed that the apple
rust, previously very bad in the orchard,
entirely disappeared. A large orchard
was sprayed thoroughly for the proven.
ton of the apple scab, but the season
was so wet the solutions were washed off
as fast as applied, and the resulting gain
in crop was not equal to the cost of the
labor.
Several greenhouse diseases have been
investigated and much information OBJ.
tanned concerning their occurrence and
characteristics. The experiments fo1
their prevention have not yet progressed
far enough for report. A peculiar
trouble found on the tomato plants, and
which seriously reduced the crop, was
found to be due to an excess of water.
Dat Smut.
Further experiments have confirmed
the results obtained year ago that
soaking the seed oats in hot water en-.
tirely destroys the smut. An increase OF
yield in addition to that produced by the
smut spores has been reported by several
Investigators. In the tests made last
summer no such increase was observed.
A very extended investigation showed
that the loss from oat smut in this state,
where native seed is used, is about per
cent, and therefore not large enough to
demand the use of the hot water for any
other treatment for disinfecting the seed.
1t also showed that the average loss from
oat smut where western seed is used is
much greater than where native seed is
used, being in the samples examined over
three times as great.
w. w. Cooke, Director.