New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 357 



on one of his fields of late cucumbers. This field had an area of 

 about one and three-fourths acres, and was planted about July 1, 

 in forty-two rows, each containing one hundred and three hills, 

 the rows being five feet apart and the hills four feet apart in the 

 row. It was planned to spray a part of the field with Bordeaux 

 mixture and leave another part unsprayed for comparison. Bor- 

 deaux mixture was selected for use in the experiment because it 



• 



is known to be a preventive of the downy mildew of the grape, 

 the late blight of potatoes and other diseases caused by fungi 

 belonging to the family of downy mildews. The downy mildew 

 of the grape is caused by the fungus Plasmopara viticola which 

 is a near relative of the cucumber downy mildew fungus. Grape 

 growers no longer fear this once troublesome disease because 

 they know that Bordeaux mixture applied at the proper time 

 will certainly prevent it. 



The writer, knowing the nature of the cucumber disease and 

 the value of Bordeaux mixture for such diseases in general, was 

 confident that the cucumber crop could be saved by spraying the 

 plants with Bordeaux mixture before the disease made its ap- 

 pearance. Acting upon this idea we prepared a brief newspaper 

 article in which the nature of the cucumber disease was explained 

 and an outline given of what seemed likely to be a successful 

 method of treating it. This article was published in June in some 

 of the local newspapers, viz., the Island, published at Floral Park ; 

 the Enterprise, published at East Norwich; and the Long Islander, 

 published at Huntington. It appears that no attention was paid 

 to this article. 'We Ic no v; of no instance in which any attempt 

 has been made on Long Island to prevent the cucumber disease 

 by the use of Bordeaux mixture, excepting, of course, our own 

 experiment and the cases of three or four farmers who, having 

 seen the results of this experiment, made an attempt to save their 

 cucumbers after the disease had attacked them. The Bordeaux 

 mixture has been used on Long Island very little for any pur- 

 pose. The past season several farmers sprayed potatoes and a 

 few have sprayed their orchards, but this excellent fungicide 

 should be better known here. 



