54 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 154. 



definitely the various specifics for the various plant-maladies 

 which need to be prevented or cured. Copper is one of these 

 specifics. It is more generally antidotal to the Fungi which 

 cause injury to plants than any element hitherto tried. In 

 France some years ago the discovery was accidentally made 

 that sulphate of copper is preventive of many Fungi injurious 

 to the Grape. This is verified by repeated experiments in the 

 United States, and it is further learned that other preparations 

 of copper are also fungicides. For prevention of the mildews 

 of the Grapevine I have in 1890 tried with satisfactory results 

 the carbonate of copper and the acetate of copper. 



What is known as the Bordeaux Mixture still proves to be 

 the most reliable preventive of the Black Rot of the Grape. 



The formula of this mixture has been widely published, and 

 should be generally known, yet I have so many letters of in- 

 quiry concerning it that it may be well to print the recipe 

 again : Take six pounds of copper sulphate, pulverized, and 

 dissolve it in sufficient boiling water, and six pounds of un- 

 slaked lime, dissolved in cold water. Four gallons of hot 

 water is enough to dissolve the sulphate, and six gallons of 

 cold water is enough to slake the lime. When the two solu- 

 tions have cooled mix them, and dilute this mixture with cold 

 water enough to make twenty-five gallons of the liquid in all. 

 Mix well, then let the mixture rest for a few minutes, so that 

 the coarser particles of lime may settle. Then draw off the 

 superincumbent liquid (which will resemble milk of lime) for 

 use in the spraying machine. When used in spray this liquid 

 should carry with it its chemical contents — that is, the mixture 

 must be kept stirred. The treated plant after it is sprayed with 

 the mixture should appear as if thinly whitewashed. This 

 whitewash after it has dried or "set" will remain on the plant 

 quite persistently ; more so on the fuzzy surface of leaves 

 than on the smoother skin of the grape. I have seen the Bor- 

 deaux Mixture applied in June yet visible on Grape-leaves in 

 November. The health of these leaves was thus preserved 

 through the season. For protection of the grapes from 

 the Black Rot the spraying should be repeated about every 

 two weeks, according to the weather. If a heavy rain falls 

 soon after a spraying this should be repeated as soon as 

 possible. 



The cost of spraying a vineyard is small in comparison to 

 the value of a full crop of protected grapes. I can point 

 to a vineyard in southern New Jersey of some thousands of 

 Concord-vines which, sprayed every ten days, carried a sound 

 crop of fruit full twenty pounds to the vine, while adjacent 

 vineyards were ruined by the Black Rot. These protected 

 grapes were worth to the owner, a wine-maker, fully six cents a 

 pound. The cost of protecting them was about four cents a vine. 



The quantity of lime for the Bordeaux Mixture was formerly 

 put at four pounds ; I suggest six pounds, to be surely on the 

 safe side. A surplus of lime can do no harm. If there is not 

 enough lime to decompose the copper sulphate the mixture 

 will injure the planl I had last June an instructive experience 

 as to this. In the hurry of preparation of sundry casks of 

 copper solutions, we carelessly used in making the Bordeaux 

 Mixture only four pounds of water-slaked lime. This quantity 

 is equivalent to scarcely two pounds of fresh lime — hardly half 

 sufficient to neutralize the acid of the copper sulphate. With 

 this faulty mixture I sprayed some 400 vines when they were 

 in bloom. The next day I saw that on these vines my spraying 

 had destroyed all the blossoms and all the foliage ! This 

 costly lesson disposes me to suggest the prudence of testing 

 all mixtures, which may contain matters hurtful to vegetation, 

 on a few plants before making a general application. Prepare 

 fungicides and insecticides some days previous to the time 

 when they are to be used and try them on a small scale until 

 sure that (hey are right. 



There is no danger attending the use of the ammoniacal 

 solution of carbonate of copper. The formula for this is : Three 

 ounces of the carbonate, two quarts of aqua ammonia (twenty- 

 six degrees) and fifty gallons of water. The copper carbonate 

 will soon dissolve in the ammonia, after which the solution is 

 mixed with the water. 



As a fungicide I used, in 1890, with very encouraging results, 

 a solution of two and a half pounds of acetate of copper in 

 twenty-five gallons of water. In prevention of potato blight 

 and rot this is as good as the Bordeaux Mixture. I cannot 

 judge of its efficiency against grape-rot, because that sec- 

 tion of the vineyard subjected to the copper acetate was 

 stripped of grapes by the Rose-beetles. 



All of the solutions of copper mentioned seem sufficiently 

 preventive of Grape-leaf mildews. Here the efficacy of the 

 copper is complete. All of the treated vines held their foliage 

 green and healthy until frost. The leaves of the vines not 

 treated were destroyed by mildew by the last of August. 



A solution of copper highly recommended by the Delaware 

 Experiment Station is, to thoroughly mix in half a pail of water 

 one pound of carbonate of copper, to which is added three 

 ounces of common glue dissolved in hot water. Then dilute 

 to twenty-five gallons. It is reported that this mixture had no 

 action on the foliage, was easily prepared, and gave remark- 

 able results at a time when the rot was making rapid progress 

 in the vineyard where it was used. 



The Delaware Station recommends also the following prep- 

 aration : Mix together three ounces of carbonate of copper 

 and one pound of pulverized carbonate of ammonia. This mix- 

 ture willentirely and quickly dissolve in a couple of quarts of hot 

 water, when it can be diluted to fifty gallons. The cost of 

 materials for fifty gallons of this mixture is twelve cents. 



As the infection of Black Rot must be prevented, but cannot 

 be cured, it is needful that treatment of the vine must begin 

 early in the season. In spring, before the buds swell, spray 

 the vine thoroughly with a solution of one pound of copper 

 sulphate in twenty gallons of water. Then, not later than the 

 middle of May, just before the vine blooms, spray with the 

 Bordeaux Mixture ; again in ten days, and then at intervals of 

 two weelts until about the last of July. The last two or three 

 sprayings may be with the carbonate of ammonia and copper 

 mixture, in order to avoid the whitewashing of the fruit con- 

 sequent on late use of Bordeaux Mixture. 



Contrary to the experience of others, I have not succeeded 

 in controlling Anthracnose on a variety of Grape-vine pecu- 

 liarly afflicted by it with any of the copper solutions. I fail also 

 to find any fungicidal value in solutions of sulphate of iron. 



The Pear-leaf blight (Entomosporium) and that of the 

 Quince are fully prevented by timely sprayings with Bordeaux 

 Mixture. 



Of the copper solutions used in the summer of 1890 for pre- 

 vention of Potato blight and rot, the Bordeaux Mixture and the 

 acetate of copper give decidedly the best results. By spraying 

 the Potato-plant every two weeks with either of these solutions 

 it will be effectually defended against the Fungus which causes 

 the rot. In very rainy seasons and in very wet locations it maybe 

 difficult to keep the Fungus from blighting the Potato-tops. 

 Such was the case with me this last fall. Nevertheless, although 

 the tops blighted before maturity, the tubers were saved from 

 rot in those sections of the field treated with the Bordeaux 

 Mixture and with the acetate. The rest all blighted and rotted 

 badlv. . „, „ 



Vineiand, n.j. A. W. Pearson. 



Plant-houses for Amateurs. — I. 



EVERY one who is interested in flowers is almost certain, 

 as winter approaches, to wish for some proper shelter for 

 his plants. If much interested he dreads the long season of 

 cold weather, when the plants housed in makeshift quarters 

 will require much attention, and make little, and that unsatis- 

 factory, growth. Window gardening, even with carefully 

 selected plants, entails a vast amount of labor, and there are 

 always many plants to which the atmosphere of an ordinary 

 house heated with a furnace and lighted with gas or oil is 

 fatal. Not every household is willing to adapt its doings to a 

 windowful of plants. Usually, where means are at command, 

 a greenhouse or a conservatory is soon added to the grounds of 

 the village or country dweller who cares for flowers, and many 

 times added simply as a fashionable luxury. But the ordinary 

 grower of limited means hesitates at the mention of a green- 

 house as involving great expense in construction and main- 

 tenance. This is an erroneous idea ; for a plant-house can 

 be erected at a very small expense, quite within ordinary 

 means. As with most things, the necessary parts are inex- 

 pensive, and it is only by the addition of ornaments and fanci- 

 ful work — luxuries — that the cost is made formidable. The 

 horticultural papers have published article after article on 

 small greenhouses, year after year, and yet such houses are 

 far from common, while it would seem that a large proportion 

 of the owners of gardens would erect such houses and enjoy 

 them were the facts clearly understood. 



My notes probably will add little to the general information, 

 but may interest some one else who finds recreation among 

 growing things. My small house, which faces north and south 

 in one corner of the garden, is not without its faults — like all 

 first attempts at building — but proves a good working house 

 for my requirements, which are sufficient space, light and 

 heat to winter over tender stock, to grow and flower plants 

 and bulbs, with a space for propagation and seed pans. It 

 also provides " the den," necessary to most men, where con- 

 fusion may reign without the danger of a revolt in the house- 

 hold. 



