No. 4.] FUiNGOUS DISEASES. 107 



Mr. A. H. KiRKLAND (of Melrose). I had the good 

 fortune this summer to make three trips into the Aroostook 

 region, Maine, where the most enterprising potato growers 

 make a business of spraying their potatoes. They use the 

 Aspinwall sprayer, witli four nozzles. They calculate that 

 something like twenty-fivx gallons to the acre is sufficient 

 for the first spraying, when the potato tops are just noticed. 

 A tifty-gallon cask is sufficient for two acres. When the 

 tops are full grown they try to put on iifty gallons to the 

 acre, but do not always get it all on. They find the use 

 of Bordeaux is a very practical matter. I was in Aroos- 

 toijk a])Out two weeks ago, and was talking with a farmer 

 who had 47 acres of potatoes ; 33 acres were in one piece. 

 He sprayed his whole field of potatoes with Bordeaux mix- 

 ture. He had 13,305 bushels of potatoes, or about 280 

 bushels to the acre. The near-l)y fields this 3'ear yielded 

 only two-thirds of that crop. There are dollars and cents 

 in this matter of spraying. 



Mr. J, L. Ellsavorth (of Worcester) . Did they spray 

 more than once ? 



Mr. KiSKLAND. The best growers sprayed three and 

 some four times. They began when the tops were about 

 six inches high, and kept it up until the vines were so rank 

 they could not drive between the rows. Their potato crop 

 is their main dependence, and they find it best to apply the 

 Bordeaux mixture every week or ten days. 



Question. How much Paris green should be used? 



Mr. KiRKLAND. Some use as much as two pounds to 

 fifty gallons. These goods are probably adulterated. One- 

 half pound to fifty gallons should be sufficient. 



Dr. Thompson (of Worcester) . I have grown fruit in New 

 York State, and have been deeply interested in the lecture. 

 While I am not a fruit grower at present, I am deeply con- 

 cerned in everything that helps the farmer. W^hile in New 

 York I Avas much interested in spraying. I have seen the fail- 

 ures that they have met with, and also the successes ; and I 

 have been interested in the improvement that is noticed on 

 land sprayed over that not sprayed, and in the large profits 

 reaped from the crops sprayed over those not sprayed. They 

 have had to spray in New York more than you have here. 

 You have more woodland and more birds than we have in 



