108 POTATO CULTURE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Bugs and Blight. 



Where the Colorado beetles and their larvae are trouble- 

 some, most growers spray the vines with a mixture of Paris 

 green or London purple and water. Some few use the poison 

 dry, mixed with land plaster. There are machines of all 

 kinds for applying the solution, from a knapsack sprayer, to 

 be carried and operated by a man, to a cart drawn by a 

 horse, which sprinkles several rows at once. Either of these 

 plans ends the beetles and larvae. We bought a machine, 

 and began using Paris green and water one of the very 

 first made for this purpose. Before that we had sprinkled 

 the potatoes with a garden-sprinkler, or a hand-broom and a 

 pail of poisoned water. Now, so far as I am concerned I 

 should prefer to drop this matter right here. The way we 

 have actually done for the last dozen years or more is not 

 according to the fancy or practice of many growers. But I 

 might as well tell the truth, perhaps. I disliked to have 

 poison around all summer, particularly when the children 

 were young. Our land is right around the house, our home, 

 and I did not feel quite easy about having the wind blowing 

 over a dozen acres of poisoned tops and then right through 

 our grounds. I felt as though if too much Paris green would 

 kill potatoes, a little would injure them. (A careless man 

 killed two acres dead one forenoon.) I asked Prof. Lazenby, 

 of the University, what he thought about this, and he said 

 he thought I was surely right. Again, I must put on poison 

 myself, or be right with the man doing it. I could not afford 

 to run any risk of carelessness. Also, if a rain came just 

 after I had worked hard to spray a field, I might go and do 

 it over. 



All these things together led me to experiment a little 



