The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1906-07-05

bordeaux mixture for potatoes
should contain six pounds of bluestone
and four pounds of freshly Stacked
stonelime to forty or fifty gallons of
water. A farmer intending to spray
his potatoes would do well to write to
the United States department of agri-
culture at Washington for farmers
bulletts 8 and 243, which give detail.
ed instructions for the preparation and
application of the spray, which cannot
be fully described within the limits of
newspaper article. Briefly stated, it
is recommended that whenever any
considerable area of potatoes has to be
SPRAYED preparations should be made
for making the mixture quickly on
large scale through the employm ent of
stock solutions and a mixing platform.
The stock solution of bluest0ne is U.s.
ually made by weighing out two pounds
to each gallon of water, and suspending
the same in loose sack near the top Of
the water. A few hours will suffice to
dissolve the bluestone. The lime
should be Stacked with care, and suifi.
cient water added to bring the paste to
Il concentration OF two pounds per
gallon. TO prepare barrel of mix.
ture three gallons of the stock blue.
stone solution are taken aud diluted in
separate barrel to make twenty gall
Ions. Two gallons of the lime milk,
we'll stirred, are diluted in another
barrel to make twenty gallons, and
both poured together into the spray
tank or allowed to empty into from an
elevated platform. The mixture
should be made fresh before using.
The application should be as thor
ough as possible. Some form of spray
pump is essential, and as a matter of
economy, in fields of several acres a
g4ared or power spray is the best, pro-
vided the machine possesses sufficient
capacity to thoroughly cover the potato
f,liage. Many sprayers now on the
market are deficient ia this respect and
require To DE run twice or three times
over field to thoroughly cover the TO.
ljage. For well grown potato vines
80 to 200 gallons per acre will BIZ
needed although great gains in yield
are often reported from the use of much
smaller quantities. The effect of Bor-
deauX mixture on potatoes is very
marked even in seasons when the blight
is not especially prevalent, and it has
been shown beyond question by many
years of experience that it is profit table
to spray every year. Experiments
made at the Puyallup station by David
A. Brodie showed an average increase
in yield of marketable potatoes in the
sprayed rows of nearly 81 per cent. Re-
suits still more striking have been re-
ported from trials ia Vermont and New
York. In the latter state five spray
ipgs at the experiment sta ton in Ge-
neva increased the yield 233 bushels
per acre and three sprayings increased
it 19l per acre.
Sin fourteen farmers business expers
iments including $50 acres, the aver.
age gan due to spraying was 62| BUSH
els per acre and the average total cost
of spraying was oS per acre; the Az
erage cost of each spraying D3 cents an
acre and the market price of the pota-
toes at digging time was S24.S6 per
acre.
SIN forty-nine farmers volunteer eX-
periments, including 3634 acres, the
average gain due to spraying was 5st
bushels per acre. In twenty.three Of
these experiments the average total
cost of spraying was 1891 per acre; the
average cost of each spraying was 90
2 } cents and the average net profit
based on the market price of potatoes
a. digging time -$22 0l per acre, as re-
ported in bulletin No. 27i of the New
York state experiment station"