1905.] DISCUSSION. 143 



mixture. I did a good job with the hand sprayer and kept 

 putting this bordeaux onto the potatoes about once a week, 

 covering them all thoroughly. In all I made ten applications. 

 The frost struck them September 23d. The unsprayed plot 

 was dead entirely, no blight there, just turned yellow. The 

 sprayed plot was in as good condition as it was during the 

 summer. If that frost had held off we would have got a better 

 yield than we did. When we dug our potatoes, we got seven 

 bushels from the unsprayed plot, and fourteen bushels from the 

 sprayed plot. When we dug them I think we found one 

 decayed potato in the sprayed plot ; since then I have found, I 

 guess, half a dozen potatoes that were decayed quite badly. 

 About three weeks afterwards I looked them over again and 

 picked out from twenty to thirty. The question is whether it 

 paid us. We think it isn't necessary to spray a great number 

 of times. Professor Jones has increased his yield every year 

 — increased from 26 per cent, to 196 per cent., an average of 

 75 per cent, increase — but he has not controlled the rotting. 

 His potatoes each year have rotted more or less. He has only 

 sprayed two or three times. I should recommend spraying 

 about three or four times, beginning about the time you expect 

 the blight will appear on the potatoes, but it must be done 

 thoroughly. I did not intend to leave practically any space on 

 those plants that were not covered, and I think I didn't leave 

 very much. They had a double spray each time by lifting up 

 the vine and spraying all over. I wanted to see if we could 

 stop the rotting. 



The plot, I think, had been manured with barnyard manure 

 to a small extent. The land was pretty rich in the first place, 

 and during the season, after the plants were up, I sprinkled 

 between the rows a coat of nitrate of soda and phosphate of 

 potash, about six hundred pounds of the combined material. 



Adjourned until two o'clock. 



