202 VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



But the treated potatoes should never be fed to animals, as cor- 

 rosive sublimate is a deadly poison. 



Formaline Treatment. — This material should be mixed with 

 water at the rate of eight ounces (one half pint) of commercial 

 formaline to fifteen gallons of water. The potatoes should be 

 soaked two hours in it. If this method is used the seed should 

 be planted within two or three days after treatment. This ma- 

 terial gives equally as good results as corrosive sublimate. It is 

 slightly more expensive, but the expense is light in any case. It 

 has, however, great advantages over the latter in that it is not 

 poisonous and being a liquid is easily diluted for use and may 

 be placed in any kind of a receptacle. This material does not in 

 any way injure the tubers or make them dangerously poisonous. 

 One pound of formaline, costing not more than 50 cents, will 

 make thirty gallons of the disinfecting solution and is enough to 

 treat fifty bushels of potatoes. If the solution stands a long time 

 it will probably lose strength. 



Exposing to Light. — If the tubers are exposed to the full sun- 

 light for several weeks before planting the scab germs will be 

 largely destroyed. It would be a good plan to turn such potatoes 

 occasionally in order to expose them fully to the light. 



Blight of Potatoes is a disease which attacks the leaves and 

 stems of potatoes, and sometimes even the tubers are affected. 

 It is most prevalent during moist, warm weather, when some- 

 times the fungus may be seen as a delicate white mildew on the 

 stems and leaves of the potato vines. In seasons favorable to it, 

 the tops of an entire field may be killed in a few days from the 

 time the disease was first noticed; at other times the tops die so 

 gradually that it is mistaken for a natural dying of the vines. 

 Rotting of the tubers often follows the dying of the tops. It has 

 been quite clearly shown that this disease may be kept in check 

 or the trouble entirely prevented by spraying the tops with the 

 Bordeaux mixture occasionally. It is, however, somewhat doubt- 

 ful about the benefits being sufficiently certain in this section to 

 justify the expense; but should this disease become more abun- 

 dant it may prove to be a paying operation. The cost of treating 

 one acre with the Bordeaux mixture is about $5. There is lit- 

 tle use of applying this material after the damage from the dis- 



