68 State Horticultural Society. 



properly, for if it is not made as it should be, you might as well 

 pour it out on the ground for all the good that will result from using 

 it. 



Second — To apply the mixture at the right time. This is also 

 -very important from the fact that we spray to prevent disease, not 

 to cure it, and there is a time, if you delay beyond which, all other 

 sprayings cannot remedy the damage done. 



Third — To apply the mixture properly. This is equally as im- 

 portant as the two foregoing conditions, for althtough your mix- 

 ture may be made with good, pure ingredients, and properly made 

 and applied at the right time, and yet, if not properly applied, you 

 will still fail to obtain the best results — the saving of your crop. 



HOW TO MAKE THE MIXTURE. 



Procure the purest sulphate of copper (Blue stone) that you 

 can — the purer the better the success. Some sulphates of copper 

 contain sulphate of iron or sulphate of zinc, or both, in greater or 

 less quantities. If it contain more than two to three per cent of 

 these minerals, it should be rejected as impure. 



For every fifty gallons of mixture you want to make at one 

 time, take six pounds of blue vitriol ; put it in a common flour sack 

 and suspend it in a wooden vessel containing more or less clean 

 water, according to the quantity of vitriol you want to dissolve or 

 the amount of mixture you wish to make. Six pounds of vitriol 

 should never be dissolved in more than twenty-five gallons of water 

 — half the amount of mixture to be made — and you can easily dis- 

 solve as many pounds in as many gallons of water in several hours 

 if you wish to do so. The temperature of the water makes but 

 little difference, if any. The secret of dissolving the vitriol rap- 

 idly is to keep it as near the surface of the water as possible and 

 to agitate it occasionally by plunging it up and down in the water. 

 We find it more convenient to put enough vitriol to dissolve, to 

 make a batch or two of mixture, the evening before we intend to 

 begin to spray. 



Another ingredient necessary is good stone lime. This should 

 be as free from grit and residue, after being slaked, as possible. 

 There is a great difference in this respect in different limes. Some 

 limes will slake almost entirely, leaving no perceptible grit or resi- 

 due. This grit, or residue, sometimes depends also on the manner 

 in which the lime is slaked. Great care should be taken in per- 

 forming this operation. Be very careful that the lime does not 



