GROWING POTATOES— PREVENTING DISEASE. 



( Continued from last month. ) 



The scab is a fungus growth on the 

 skin of the potato making it unsightly 

 for market and causing considerable 

 waste in cleaning for the table. 



To kill the scab we first wash the seed 

 so that the fungi side reaches every part 

 of the skin. 



Make the solution with one ounce of 

 corrosive sublimate dissolved in one 

 gallon of hot water, added to seven gal- 

 lons of water, or in this proportion for 

 any quantity required. We use the 

 sheep dipping tank, but two barrels, or 

 an oil barrel sawn in two is handy. 



Leave the potatoes in the solution 

 ninety minutes, draw off the solution in 

 the other barrel or any wooden vessel, 

 or dip out the potatoes when they are 

 ready to cut and plant and will not pro- 

 duce a scabby crop except they are 

 handled in crates or bags that have had 

 scabby potatoes in them, or planted on 

 land that has produced a crop of scabby 

 potatoes. 



There has been a popular opinion 

 that fresh stable manure caused the 

 scab. We staked out a plot and applied 

 fresh manure directly on the seed after 

 dropped, but the crop from all parts of 

 the field was smooth and clean includ- 

 ing this plot. 



This takes a little additional time and 

 expense, but we have found it to pay us 

 well from ready sales at top prices. 



Blight. — Early in August, 1895, "^^ 

 noticed the under and older leaves on 

 our potatoes showing brown patches on 

 them which was then spreading rapidly. 



Although too late to get best results 

 ■we undertook to spray with Bordeaux 

 mixture the middle and end of August, 

 with only crude implements at our dis- 

 posal, with the result of an increased 



yield of 36 bushels to the acre from the 

 sprayed over the unsprayed parts of the 

 field. 



1896 found us prepared to do first- 

 class spraying at short notice, and again 

 the blight commenced the last days of 

 July, and we made three sprayings with 

 Bordeaux the first, middle and end of 

 August. At the time of the last spray- 

 ing we found the unsprayed rows com- 

 pletely dead with* the blight, and the 

 sprayed rows were beautifully green yet 

 and remained so up to the time of frosty 

 late in September, and yielded 87^ 

 bushels to the acre more than the un- 

 sprayed. 



The same variety (Empire State) was 

 used for the test, all planted the same 

 day under the same conditions, and care 

 as far as possible except the spraying. 



At the Cornell University Agricultural 

 Experimental Station in 1897, ^he pota- 

 to plots cultivated on the level yielded 

 325 bushels per acre against 288 bushels 

 from plots hilled up, showing an in- 

 creased yield in favor of the level culti- 

 vation of 37 bushels per acre with Car- 

 man No. 3. 



At the same station the R. N. T. No. 

 2, unsprayed with five cultivations 

 yielded 234 bushels. 



Sprayed four times with five cultiva- 

 tions yielded 305 bushels. 



Sprayed four times with seven culti- 

 vations yielded 347 bushels. 



Showing an increased yield of 71 

 bushels per acre from spraying for blight, 

 and an increased yield of 113 bushels 

 per acre as the result of spraying and 

 two extra cultivations. 



Varieties. — The best varieties ever in- 

 troduced have lost in vitality in a few 

 years, which makes it necessary to orig- 



12> 



