No. 4.] MODERN POTATO CULTURE. 63 



the arsenate of lead would cost lour times a.s much as the 

 Paris green. 



Mr. Clark. It makes very little difference if it does cost 

 a little more, for it is far more effective. In regard to the 

 mode of application, there is a pump made, the Ware pump, 

 which was manufactured for the Gypsy Moth Committee 

 and used in the application of the arsenate of lead. Farmers 

 can club together and get one of these pumps, and it is 

 astonishing how fast you can spray a field. You do it, of 

 course, as the speaker has recommended, with a nozzle that 

 makes a pure spray, so as to get a fine mist upon the leaf; 

 and one man can work the [tump, and by using that with a 

 proper nozzle and hose of small size, you can go over an 

 acre of potatoes in a very reasonable time. 



Ex-Gov. W. D. Hoard (of Fort Atkinson, Wis.). Pro- 

 fessor Woods spoke of the great necessity of a sufficient 

 amount of moisture. I had a little occasion to demonstrate 

 that. In my little town I had a small field of potatoes, and 

 I divided it, and I employed the street sprinkler at an 

 expense of about six dollars. I think there was in the neigh- 

 borhood of about three-quarters of an acre in all. I had 

 the street sprinkler come, and had him drench, at a certain 

 period in the growth of those potatoes, just about the time 

 they were setting, one-half of the field, and the other half 

 I left undrenched. There was a very severe drought pre- 

 vailing. I paid him six dollars, and received ninety dollars' 

 worth of potatoes for the use of the six dollars in drench- 

 ing, — that is, ninety dollars worth more of potatoes were 

 grown on the portion thus irrigated than on the unirrigated 

 portion. I have also noticed this in Colorado, about Gree- 

 ley, which is a great potato raising section of Colorado. 



We find in Wisconsin that we are greatly assisted in grow- 

 ing potatoes if we can secure a large amount of humus, and 

 in all of Professor Woods' talk about fertilizers he had nothing 

 to say about humus. Now, we get our humus by turning 

 in heavy clover sod, if we can get the clover sod. On my 

 own farm I have what is known as a piece of bottom land, 

 down next to the Rock River, that has a good deal of black 

 soil in it, and I grow potatoes there successfully. 



