THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



101 



ing the field was. gone over with a spike- 

 tooth harrow and the land thus leveled. 

 In this way there was no necessity for 

 hilling the potatoes. The crust which 

 forms after the spring rains is broken up 

 by the harrow, making the ground mellow, 

 and the stones and clods are raked into 

 the hollows by the same means, thus giv- 

 ing the pottato an easier chance to grow 

 and expand. Weeds are destroyed at the 

 same time. 



But the most practical and valuable 

 results of the experiments was the knowl- 

 edge obtained concerning the nature of the 

 early and late blight and its prevention. 

 Blight is one of the cases in which "an 

 ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 

 cure." The early blight is often not rec- 

 ognized by the farmers, who think that 

 the shriveled, yellow leaves and small po- 

 tatoes are due to early maturity, for the 

 potato does not rot. Hot, dry weather 

 favors the attacks. 



Late blight receives more attention as it 

 is far more serious to the crop in its con- 

 sequences, causing the potatoes to rot, and 

 has been the cause of the failure of the 

 New York crop this year. The potato 

 famine of Ireland in 1846 was largely due 

 to this late blight, as is also the scarcity 

 this year, and therefore any remedy for 

 the evil is of untold value. The disease 

 is a fungus growth which attacks the 

 leaves, causing them to turn first yel- 

 low, then black and shrivel up. emitting a 

 strong, disagreeable odor, and the disease 

 does not make its appearance until August 

 or September. The remedy for the blight 

 is a thorough spraying with the Bordeaux 

 mixture, the formula far which is: 



Copper sulphate. 6 pounds 



Lime 4 pounds 



Water 45 gallons 



From two to six barrels of this mixture 

 per acre will be required, and if is used in 

 time and with thoroughness it is a sure 

 preventative. The experiment station 

 had the potatoes planted in plats of one 

 acre each and applied this solution by 

 spraying to all the plats except one, and 



while those sprayed yielded 305 bushels 

 per acre, the plat not sprayed yielded but 

 234 bushels a loss of 71 bushels per 

 acre. 



For making the Bordeaux Mixture the 

 following directions are given: Suspend 

 a gunny sack containing 40 pounds of 

 copper sulphate, or blue vitrol as it is 

 more commonly known, in a barrel con- 

 taining 40 gallons of water. Suspend it 

 near the surface of the water, cover the 

 barrel tightly and it will keep good for a 

 long time. The lime used should be fresh 

 burned, caustic and not air slaked. To 

 make up four barrels of the Boi'deaux 

 Mixture put 16 pounds of lime into a long, 

 shallow, box, water-tight and add enough 

 water to slake, stirring frequentlj 7 . When 

 you desire to use it, stir well and put one- 

 fourth of it into a keg, and dilute with 20 

 gallons of water. Now put into a barrel 

 six gallons of the dissolved copper sulphate, 

 which must be well stirred, add enough 

 water to fill the barrel half full and then 

 put in the lime that has been diluted with 

 20 gallons of water. Strain this and the 

 mixture is ready to spray on the plants. 

 If you wish to kill potato bugs at the same 

 time, add to this mixture from four to six 

 ounces of Paris green. Apply with a strong 

 force pump, stirring the mixture frequently 

 so the ingredients will be evenly distrib- 

 uted. 



SWILL-FED HOGS. 



Swill-fed hogs are often subject to se- 

 vere attacks, similar to hog cholera, yet 

 which is not that disease because it is not 

 of an infectious nature. While all the 

 hogs fed on swill may be affected, those 

 on an adjoining lot, that have a different 

 kind of food, are immune, and this led 

 farmers to suspect that the disease must 

 be due to something in the food. Hogs 

 that were raised on farms not far from the 

 city, and that were fed on the swill col- 

 lected from hotels, containing a great deal 

 of dishwater, were more frequent sufferers. 



This led to a thorough investigation 

 among those interested in hog-raising, and 



