Oxford Democrat., 1920-06-22
Bordeaux Mixture.

The time for protecting the potato
crop by spraying with bordeaux mixture
from the rednced yields incident to early
and late blight and the losses from 70,
caused by the late blight will soon be
here. The perennial question of whether
1t Is best for the Maine grower to buy
ready prepared bordeaux mixture OF
make 1t at home is again with US. The
following letter to the Director of the
Maine Agricultural Experiment Station
and his reply seem to be timely:
June 2, 1920.
~"Would you please inform me just
how the prepared powdered bordeaux
mixture, put out by the people
and several other companies compares
with our home mixed bordeaux In its ef.
fectiveness In spraying potatoes.
"As understand it, this preparation
they are putting out this year is lime
and copper sulphate properly mixed and
then the water evaporated from 1t, leav-
Ing dry substance composed of the
lime and copper sulpbate.
"We are receiving dozens of inquiries
daily about this now at the Farm Bureau
Office, and l would like to have your
opinion on 1t. and data that you may
have on the subject"
OBoNo, June 8, 1920.
Replying to yours of June 2 would
say that we have not experimental with
the powdered bordeaux mixture put out
by the - people, and do not know of
any body who has In comparing 1t with
freshly prepared homemade bordeaux.
We do not see, however, that their claims
differ materially from those made by va
rious other companies in the past, and
we have yet to see dry bordeaux pow
der which when wet up would equal
freshly prepared bordeaux mixture.
Without making any specific comments
on the individual spraying material In
question, we have not seen anything to
change our opinions as expressed in Cir
culsr 522 entitled Spraying Potatoes in
1919 which is being sent you by this
mail.
"We are also sending you a copy OF
Farmers Bulletin 994, United States De-
partment of Agriculture. If you are
coming up against these questions of the
comparison of home prepared bordeaux
mixture with various commercial substi.
tutes believe you will find this as valu-
able as any reference book you ever used
in college. You will see by that that
there are a number of things to be con-
sidered when you attempt to substitute
a dry powder for the home prepared
mixture I wish to call your attention
TO one point and leave you to find out
the rest for yourself This is, that re.
gardless of the physical condition of a
freshly prepared or com mmercial substi-
tute bordeaux the efficiency of the spray
depends largely upon the amount of cop
per which 1t contains. cannot see why
a hard-headed Maine farmer is willing to
pay considerable more per pound for one
of these substitutes which will require
rom 1915 to nearly 85 pounds to provide
sufficient copper to be equivalent to a
$3.50 bordeaux mixture. This is set
forth In the table on page of the Farm
ers' Bulletin above mentioned. The ar.
gument is that 1t saves time. As far as
we know none of the makers of these
substitutes claim that their materials are
better. / grant that the farmers time is
like that of any other man. /
question whether 1t is valuable enough
80 that he can afford to pay high price
city labor to make his bordeaux mixture
for him and have them go to the ex-
pense of driving off the water. Making
bordeaux mixture on the farm at home
IN Maine Is quite different proposition
han making lime sulphur. For the
'ma)l grower there are quite good grounds
ior argument in favor of purchasing COM
nercial lime sulphur concentrate. Also
dry lime sulphur If equally effective
has advantages over liquid concentrate.
TO make bordeaux mixture in Maine all |
We have to do is to import the copper
Iulphate. We produce the lime right |
,ere and have plenty of water. II one
axes little trouble to fix up a proper
pray mixing platform the making of
bordeaux mixture is a much less diff.
ult, dirty and time consuming job than
he agents of these substitutes would
lave you think"
Circular 522, "Spraying Potatoes In
916," and Circular 535, "The Control of
'otato Enemies" can be had on applica-
ion to the Director of the Maine Expert.
nent Station, Orono, and the Farmers
Bulletin 994, Commercial Bordeaux
fixtures, how to Calculate Their Val
les," from the Secretary of Agriculture
t Washington, D. c., or your Congress.
nan.
CHAs. D. WOODS, Director.