July 12, 1893. | 



Garden and Forest. 



297 



after flowering, but may then be cut down. It will soon make 

 a second growth, however, some two feet high. Some of the 

 Flags are often useful, one of the most effective being Iris 

 Pseudo-acorus, whose yellow flowers are very attractive in late 

 June. The Kaempfer Irises are much used in such situations 

 and are at present in full flower. Earlier in the season Iris 

 spectabilis will produce a profusion of small light purple flow- 

 ers for several weeks, and later on it is more effective than most 

 Grasses, it having tall narrow foliage. What a wonderful diver- 

 sity there is among the Grasses, not only in form, but move- 

 ment ! These movements are curiously diverse and often in- 

 teresting as the plants sway in the wind. 



Fig- 43- — Potato-field in Vermont. The plot on the left treated with Bordeaux mix 

 the plot oil the right untreated. 



In the water-garden the various Nymphaeas are in full vigor, 

 the hardy varieties being mostly in flower. N.Carolinianahas 

 been producing flowers of the largest size. It is very distinct 

 among the pink-tinted Lilies with its numerous long narrow 

 petals. There is no tender Nyn^phaea which I more enjoy than 

 the Australian N. gigantea. My present specimen, for which 

 I am indebted to your correspondent, Mr. J. Brydon, 

 I consider a very notable one. It is a seedling of 

 this season, and when received last month had 

 sixteen leaves, some a foot in diameter, and nu- 

 merous buds. Any one who has had experience 

 of this species will appreciate the statement that 

 this plant has had skillful treatment. There is 

 no plant known to me which will become 

 dormant more promptly on the slightest pre- 

 text. 



The first flower-stalks of the wonderful Nelumbium specio- 

 sum are well above the water. There is no question as to the 

 hardiness of this plant even farther north than this, but there 

 seems to be some uncertainty as to the conditions of growth 

 required before the end of the year to enable it to winter safely. 

 It is generally supposed that it must make new tubers before 

 cold weather sets in. It is a rambler, sending out strong sto- 

 lons, pointed at the ends to pierce soft earth, which advance a 

 foot or so and put out a bunch of roots, a pair of leaves in suc- 

 cession, usually a pair of flower-stalks, and later tubers. Other 

 buds developintostolons.usuallytwo.andsometimes three, from 

 eachjoint, so that a Nelumbium plantation eventually becomes 

 a mass of tangled underground stems. In my tank several of 

 these runners escaped over the top of the box in which 

 the tubers were enclosed and wintered safely in the bot- 

 tom of the tank where there was no soil to penetrate or 

 to hold the roots. No tubers formed on these runners, and 

 I am curious to know from some one's experience, presuming 

 that there are tubers at the beginning of the ramification, how 

 extensive a development of runners would be supported by 

 such tubers. The joints themselves, with the numerous roots, 

 appear well adapted to make successful cuttings, but that ex- 

 periment remains to be tried. 



When properly established this plant is seldom without 

 flowers, it being one of the most prolific of the family. 



Elizabeth. N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



A Test of Fung-icides upon Potatoes. 



EXPERIMENTS in checking Potato-blight, Phytophthora 

 infestans, have been carried on at the Vermont Experi- 

 ment Station for the past three years. Last summer ' 1892), in 

 continuation of this work, a careful comparative test of twelve 

 of the most promising fungicides was undertaken. The work 

 was duplicated in different fields and upon several varieties of 

 potatoes. We believe, therefore, that the results are reliable so 

 far as the work of a single season can make them. Three ap- 

 plications of each fungicide were made ; the first on July 30th, 

 thesecond August 13th, and the third August 25th. From our 

 tests we rank these twelve fungicides as follows, in 

 the order of their effectiveness against Potato-blight : 



1. Strong Bordeaux mixture: Six pounds copper 

 sulphate, four pounds lime and twenty-two gallons 

 water. 



2. Bordeaux mixture and molasses : Eight pounds 

 copper sulphate, eight pounds lime, eight pounds 

 molasses and fifty gallons water. 



3. Weak Bordeaux mixture ; Five pounds copper 

 sulphate, five pounds lime and fifty gallons water. 



4. ^Modified Eau Celeste : Four pounds copper sul- 

 phate, five pounds sal. soda, three pints ammonia 

 and forty-five gallons water. 



5. Copper-soda solution : Eight pounds copper sul- 

 phate twelve and one-half pounds sal. soda and fifty 

 gallons of water. 



6. Verdigris solution : Five pounds verdigris and 

 fifty gallons water. 



7. Very weak Bordeaux mixture : One pound cop- 

 per sulphate, one pound lime and thirty gallons 

 water. 



8. Copper carbonate in suspension : One pound 

 copper carbonate and twenty-five gallons water. 



9. Copper and ammonium carbonates : One pound 

 copper carbonate, two pounds ammonia carbonate 

 and fifty gallons water. 



10. Glue mixture: Ten ounces copper sulphate, 

 twelve ounces sal. soda, eight ounces liquid glue and 

 twenty-five gallons water. 



"'"^' II. Copper chloride solution : Three ounces copper 



chloride and twenty-two gallons water. 



12. Ammoniacal copper carbonate: Five ounces copper 

 carbonate, three pints ammonia and forty-five gallons water. 



Of these twelve the first four alone appear valuable enough 

 to be recommended to the Potato-grower. Of these four the 

 strong Bordeaux mixture gave the best results ; the weak mix- 

 ture is, however, the one we recommend for all applications 



Fig. 44. — Yield of marketable Potatoes from plot treated with Bordeaux mixture. 



when the disease is not immediately threatening. The mo- 

 lasses does not seem to add much, if any, to the value of the 

 mixture, and we do not recommend it. The modified Eau 

 Celeste is about as expensive as Bordeaux mixture, and did not 

 give as good results ; we recommend it only when a ready- 

 prepared, soluble fungicide is especially desired. Of such it 

 has proved decidedly the best. 



The most surprising outcome of our work has been the utter 

 failure of the ammoniacal copper carbonate solution. We have 



used it with good results in orchard 

 work against Apple and Pear-scab, 

 and it has an established reputation 

 for combating Grape diseases. Yet 

 in our experiments upon Potatoes 

 for two years, and on several plots 

 each year, it has proved scarcely 

 better than nothing. I do not 

 think this difference in results can 

 be attributed to any great difference in the effect of this fungi- 

 cide upon these different species of fungi, providing only that 

 it could act on all under the same conditions of weather. Its 

 failure is, however, easily understood when we observe the 

 peculiar conditions which are necessary for the development 

 and spread of the Potato-blight. In Vermont this disease does 

 not appear until late in the summer ; then it spreads with mar- 

 velous rapidity, but only during very wet weather. Owing to 



45. — Yield from untreated 

 plot of the same size. 



