16 The Spraying of Plants. 



possessed " strength," but whether best adapted for the purpose 

 designed may be open to doubt : 



(a) Aconite branches and tubercles 1 kilogram. 



Water 4 liters. 



(6) Pigeon dung 25 " 



Urine 1 hectoliter. 



Mixture (6) was allowed to ferment forty-eight hours, and 

 infusion (a) was added only just before the mixture was used. 

 The applications should be made in April. 



The most important and probably the most effective form in 

 which sulphur was used was the solution known as the " Grison 

 liquid " (eau Grison). It was also called the poly- or the hydro- 

 sulphur of Grison ; it is still in use, although not so commonly 

 as heretofore. Grison was head gardener of the vegetable 

 houses (serres du potager) at Versailles, France, and in 1851 

 he first made the solution. He used * 



Flowers of sulphur , . .500 grams. 



Freshly slaked lime .,..500 " 



Water ......... 3 liters. 



Boil the above for ten minutes, allow the mixture to settle, 

 and then draw off the clear liquid. Keep this in bottles and 

 before using add one hundred parts of water to one part of the 

 liquid. Apply with a syringe. This solution is excellent for 

 all surface mildews, and three applications are sufficient to pro- 

 tect foliage. Later the quantity of sulphur and of lime was 

 reduced one-half and it is one of the few early fungicidal prepa- 

 rations still in use. An Englishman claims 2 to have used a 

 similar preparation as early as 1845, using one part of sulphur, 

 one part of lime, and one hundred parts of water. Grison, 

 however, appears to have been entirely independent in the 

 manufacture of his preparation, and it soon became much 

 better known than the other. 



Lime wash was recommended in America against curculio of 

 plums in 1850. Lawrence Young, of Louisville, Ky., seems to 

 have been one of the first to try this remedy, and it was ap- 

 parently successful. 3 " It consists simply of covering the young 



i Revue Horticole, 1852, May 1, 168. 



* Tuck, Gard. Chror 1852. July 27, 419. 3 Country Gentleman, 1850, 333. 



