Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-06-17
in its effectiveness in spraying pota-

in its effectiveness in spraying pota-
toes.
"As understand it. this prepare
ton they are putting out this year. is
lime and copper sulphate properly
mixed and then the water evaporated
from il. leaving a dry substance COM
posed of the lime and copper sulphate.
I'VE are receiving dozens Of in
quiries daily about this now At the
Farm Bureau Office, and I would like
to have your opinion on it. and data
that you may have on the subject"
Orono, June 3. 1920.
Replying to yours of June
would say that we have not expert
mented with the powdered bordeaux
mixture put out by the - people
and do not know of anybody who has
In comparing it with freshly prepared
homemade bordeaux. We do not see
however, that their claims differ ma
terially from those made by various
other concerns in the past and we
have yet to see a dry bordeaux pow
der which when wet up would equal a
freshly prepared bordeaux mixture.
Without making any specific COM
ments on the individual spraying ma
terial in question. we have not seen
anything to change our opinions as
expressed in Circular 522 entitled
Spraying Potatoes in 1916 which il
being sent you by this mail.
I'VE are also sending You q copy Of
Farmers Bulletin S94. United States
Department Of Agriculture. II you
are coming up against these questions
of the comparison Of home prepared
bordeaux mixture with various COM
merciaI substitutes I believe you will
find this as valuable as any reference
book you ever used in college. You
will see by that, that there are num-
Der of things to be considered when
you attempt to substitute dry pow
der for the home prepared mixture. I
wish to call your attention to one
point and leave you to ind out the
rest for yourself This IL. that re-
CARELESS Of the. physical condition Of
freshly prepared or a commercial
substitute bordeaux the efficiency Of
the spray depends largely upon the
amount Of copper which It contains.
cannot see why a hard-headed Maine
farmer is willing to pay considerable
more per pound for one Of these sub
stitutes which will require from 1915
to nearly So pounds TO provide SUM-
cient copper to be equivalent to 5-s-
so bordeaux mixture. This is set
forth in the table on page 6 Of the
Farmers Bulletin above mentioned.
The argument is that it saves time.
AS far as~we know none of the maxi
ers of these substitutes claim that
their materials are better. l grant
that the farmers time is valuable like
that of any other man. / question
whether 1t is valuable enough so 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. Max
ing bordeaux mixture on the farm at
home in Maine is quite a different
proposition than making lime sulphur.
For the small grower there are quite
good grounds for argument in favor Of
purchasing commercial lime sulphur
| concentrate. Also a dry lime sulphur
If equally effective has advantages
over liquid concentrate. To make
| bordeaux mixture in Maine all we
have to do is import the copper sui
phate. We produce the lime right
here and have plenty of water. If
one takes a little trouble to fix up a
| proper spray mixing platform the
making of bordeaux mixture is a much
! less difficult, dirty and time consum-
| ing job than the agents of these SUBJ
stitutes would have you think"
t Circular 522 Spraying Potatoes in
1916" and Circular 535. The Control
of Potato Enemies" can be had on ap.
plication to the Director Of the Maine
Experiment Station, Orono and the
Farmers Bulletin 994. Commercial
Bordeaux Mixtures, How to Calculate
Their Values" from the Secretary OF
Agriculture at Washington, D. c., OF
your Congressman
CHAS. D. WOODS,
II Director.