CHAPTER II. 

 SPRAYING IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



I. IN FRANCE. 

 Discursive Trials of Fungicides. 



No important changes took place in the materials used by 

 the French for the destruction of fungi and insects until about 

 the year 1882. The use of chemicals in place of the substances 

 which appeal strongly to the senses had increased, for an occa- 

 sional mention is made regarding the more or less successful 

 trial of some new material of this character. Gironard 1 says 

 that in 1862 the idea occurred to him to use from two to four 

 grams of acetate of potassium in one liter of water for the pre- 

 vention of mildew on grapes. The results were very marked, 

 and in 1863 the vines were productive directly in proportion 

 to the amounts of the chemical applied. But this substance 

 did not come into general use, and it was not until the value of 

 the compounds of copper became known that any permanent 

 advances were made. 



Soon after the appearance in France of the downy mildew 

 (Peronospora viticola) the necessity for a more energetic fungi- 

 cide than sulphur became evident. Sulphur as then used seemed 

 to be entirely without effect in checking the progress of this 

 disease. The mildew was first discovered in France in 1878. 2 

 Millardet saw it in September of that year upon some American 

 grape seedlings growing in the nursery of the Societe d'Agricul- 

 ture de la Gironde, and Plachon at the same time recognized it 



1 Bulletin de la Societe d" 1 Horticulture d'Eure-et-Loir, 186S, No. 13, January, 

 270. 



2 Jour. d'Ag. Prat. 1881, Feb. 10, 192. 



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