WATCHING 
229 AND SPRAYING 
exists, it is often a wise precaution to spray it 
before planting, but you must spray your 
growing crop on the very first sign of insects 
or diseases. Remember that bugs do not 
like poison, and will not go where it is; 
therefore, you must take it to them in good 
quantities. Partial spraying is little better 
than none. Do the job thoroughly, when you 
start in to do it at all. See that the whole 
plant from root to top is thoroughly saturated— 
stem, branches and leaves. One spot untouched 
by the spray makes a sure refuge for the bug. 
Don’t sympathize with his homeless condition 
at the expense of your crop. 
Bordeaux mixture is a cure for almost every 
variety of plant disease. It consists of sulphate 
of copper (blue vitriol) and lime, diluted with 
water. The principal use of the lime is to make 
the mixture stick to the plant and to render the 
copper sulphate less caustic, and one thorough 
spraying, if rain does not come for a day or two, 
will cling to the plant for a couple of weeks. 
This mixture can be safely used even before there 
is any sign of disease, and it then acts as a pre- 
ventive. But where disease is severe, apply it 
every few days, because the new leaves and 
shoots offer so many breeding places for the 
disease spores. 
