POTATO CULTURE. 113 



help about keeping bugs off, and you know Paris green can 

 be put in at the same time, if you wish. It seems to me that 

 the coating of leaves with the mixture would be injurious to 

 the vines, somewhat ; but perhaps it is better than to risk 

 their dying from disease. 



Did you ever hear how the value of this mixture was dis- 

 covered ? It was not studied out, but hit on by accident, as 

 is often the case. Of course, the mixture is named after the 

 city of Bordeaux, in France, where it was discovered. As I 

 remember, some one was troubled by schoolchildren eating 

 his grapes as they passed along. So he got some whitewash 

 (lime) and put in some sulphate of copper and sprinkled on 

 his vines to protect them from the children. But he had 

 done far more than he had arranged for. It turned out that 

 the grapes on the sprayed vines failed to rot, as they did 

 elsewhere, and experiments soon showed that an important 

 discovery had been made. 



I have thought it best not to give the formula for the 

 Bordeaux mixture. This will not reach readers in time for 

 use this season, probably. By another year some change 

 may be made. You can learn how to prepare it, from latest 

 experiment-station reports and the papers. 



Since writing the above I noticed in the papers that our 

 Experiment Station had arranged for an exhibition of spray- 

 ing-machines on their grounds, and went there to see them 

 work, and learn what I could. I went with an impression 

 that I had better spray my potatoes this season. I now in- 

 tend to do so. I have figured on the cost pretty carefully, 

 and it will not take many bushels per acre to cover it. It is 

 mainly the cost of material, as we can manage to do the 

 work at odd spells ; and they make the mixture so much 

 weaker now that the cost is not large, and the sprayers can 

 be managed so as to waste very little spray the plants only. 

 My pencil tells me to get a knapsack-sprayer, and I think I 

 shall. They cost only one-fourth or one-third as much as 

 the carts. Of course, one can not get over the field nearly 



