1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
5i3 
BORDEAUX MIXTURE FOR AN ACRE. 
WHAT DETERMINES THE COST ? 
The cost of spraying- depends on the season, mixture 
and labor. The weather may be unfavorable, com¬ 
pelling frequent applications. It has rained nearly 
every other day for the last two weeks, and, with 10 
acres to spray, one is practically helpless. I sprayed 
one field six times last season. There is a great differ¬ 
ence of opinion in regard to the strength of the mix¬ 
ture required, which, of course, affects the cost. The 
United States Department claims to obtain as good 
results from a half-strength mixture, but results at 
Geneva favor the use of the full strength for the last 
two sprayings. My own experiments were in favor of 
stronger mixtures, or at least were more effective 
where the last few gallons from the bottom of the 
barrel, which looked bluer, were applied. The Geneva 
Station gives the cost as follows : 
12 lbs. 
4 lbs. 
Water 
cooper 
lime. 
gallons. 
First spraying with Paris-green. 
$0.72 
$o.os 
88 
Second saraying with Paris-sreen. . 
0.72 
o.os 
88 
Third spraying, full strength. 
1.54 
0.16 
88 
Fourth spraying, full strengtn. 
Labor. 
1.54 
1.50 
0.10 
88 
Total cost. 
$0.50 
No labor is charged for the first two sprayings, as 
the work is assumed to be done when bugs need pois¬ 
oning. The United States Department says : “ Six 
pounds of copper sulphate and four pounds of lime to 
46 gallons, will cost cne cent per gallon.” 
T. B. Terry says: “ Two men can spray six acres 
per day, with me to mix the material and wait on 
them I use 50 gallons per acre. I bought a barrel of 
vitriol at four cents per pound. With four pounds 
each of vitriol and lime, the mixtures cost 20 cents per 
50 gallons.” He uses the Knapsack sprayers, which 
are hard to carry and too slow for haying time. He 
averages two acres per man per day. This would cost 
me $1.70 for each application for labor and mixtures. 
But Does It Really Pay ? 
One would feel more encouraged to spray if sure of 
paying results. From a very slight difference in a 
few rows a difference of 40 bushels per acre is com¬ 
puted ; but every man who has raised potatoes in a 
wholesale way knows no two rows will yield exactly 
alike, and great variations occur from many causes. I 
had a field of early potatoes that was situated so that 
we had to pass it on the way to all of the others. I 
sprayed the edge of that field perhaps a dozen times. 
Every time we passed either way we turned on the 
spray. It was kept “ blue,” yet when the blight 
came, all commenced to die at the same time. The 
sprayed portion “ hung on,” showed green leaves and 
stalks for two weeks after the rest were dead, but 
finally “gave it up.” “But,” says one authority, 
“ there are several kinds of blight, and some do not 
seem to be prevented by the Bordeaux Mixture.” 
Perhaps I had the other kind. “ As the Bordeaux 
Mixture is simply a preventive, not a curative, and as 
the disease is liable to make its appearance at any 
time when the atmospheric conditions are suitable, it 
is recommended that the applications should begin soon 
after the vines commence to grow, certainly as soon 
as the usual time for applying Paris-green.” 
The above quoted statement may be true, but I have 
yet to see potato blight in this section before August 1, 
and we are obliged to kill bugs in June. I believe the 
blight has its season of germination, growth and ma¬ 
turity the same as other plants. The growth is so 
rapid, however, that one must be there first to do any 
good. The Paris-green can be added, and will do good 
work by using half a pound to the 50 gallons. The 
poisons can be used five times as strong in the mix¬ 
tures which contain lime as with clear water, without 
injuring the foliage. 
What You Must Lay Out. 
If you think you must spray it will go about like 
this: Spend about $10 fora force pump or $14 to $18 for 
a Kn psack sprayer. Spend half a day trying to buy 
vitriol at the figures given. After bantering, your 
druggist will perhaps let you have it for 10 cents per 
pound, but I cannot find any place where it can be 
bought for less unless one takes a barrel (several 
hundred pounds) and pays the freight. It may b* a 
month on the road, so one pays 10 cents and hunts for 
some fresh lime. It isn’t the whitewashing season 
and in a small town good unslaked lime is a scarce 
article. Go back to the drug store and buy some, put 
in tin cans at five cents per pound. “ Put a dose of 
copper in a bag and hang it in a pail of cold water,” 
says one noted authority. He might have added, 
“ and wait till after dinner for it to dissolve.” 
I put the copper in a pail and poured on hot water 
I crushed it with a stick and poured off the water ; 
then added more hot water until it was all dissolved, 
which was in a few minutes. Tt was strained into the 
barrel. The slaked lime was put in a bran sack and 
water was poured on it till enough lime was obtained. 
This can be ascertained by keeping the mixture well 
stirred and adding from time to time a drop of 
commercial potassium—ferrocyanide—which will not 
change color when dropped into the mixture if there 
be sufficient lime. The more lime the better the stuff 
will stick to the foliage. The fine particles of lime 
must not be strained out. Strain the water and fill 
the barrel. Be very careful to keep everything clean, 
as a very little dirt will clog the nozzle. The mixture 
will bother somewhat anyway and I fixed the nozzle 
so that it would turn easily, and every little while 
gave it a turn with my thumb, opening it wider so 
that it would clear itself. I then turned it back and 
did not stop the team. 
How to Carry the Mixture. 
If you work sharply by nine o’clock you may be 
ready with the first barrelful and started for the field. 
Perhaps you may do as a friend of mine did—$et the 
barrel in the democrat wagon and drive the horses 
between the rows. If the ground is level this will do. 
The horses will step on the vines and the wheels 
smash some hills. In his anxiety to avoid damage, he 
turned around pretty short and the barrel tipped over. 
It broke off the dash-board, broke the pump handle, 
sprayed the boy instead of the bugs, and he neailv 
had a runaway. As far as damage to foliage is con¬ 
cerned, scarcely any can be seen in a few days, even 
at the end of the rows where the turning is done. I 
took the forward axle to the two horse wagon and 
fastened the tongue so that it was rigid. On this cart 
I fastened a platform for the barrel, driver and 
sprayer to stand on. The pump is bolted to the barrel 
and the latter to the cart. With two horses and a man 
to drive I can spray an acre an hour. I pump with 
one hand and hold the nozzle with the other. We 
cover five or six rows at a time and walk the horses 
slowly. It is rather hard work : but one can change 
and rest when the barrel is being filled. 
The copper for the next batch should be dissolving 
while you are gone with the first made. One can mix 
it while the barrel is being filled with water, to save 
time. Do not try to spray unless you have proper 
tools to work with, for you will certainly lose your 
temper. The hob weather, the hay that is waiting, 
the contempt of the hired help for “such fooling,” the 
clogging nozzle, and the uncertainty of weather and 
result require the best tools and Christian patience. 
0. E. CHAPMAN. 
THE PROSPECT. 
There are now pending before the United States 
Supreme Court two appeals from the Supreme Court 
of Massachusetts with reference to the sale of oleo¬ 
margarine imported from Illinois, in the original 
packages, in the Old Bay State, and Judge Holt, of 
the United States Circuit Court, has just decided, at 
Boston, that further prosecutions against dealers in 
the concoction must be suspended within his juris¬ 
diction until the court of last resort at Washington 
shall decide the question. In the Iowa “ Original 
Package Case ” the Supreme Court decided, about 
three years ago, that the State laws couldn’t prohibit 
the importation into any State of goods from other 
States, or their sale after importation, so long as they 
remained in the original packages. The decision re¬ 
ferred directly to the liquor question, but embraced 
in its scope the oleomargarine and a multitude of 
other interests. On the suggestion of the Court, how¬ 
ever, Congress on August 2, 1890, passed a law pro¬ 
viding that the State laws should be applicable to 
articles in transit from one State to another as soon 
as they entered the State. No decision has yet been 
rendered by the United States Court with regard to 
the constitutionality or scope of this law, and the de¬ 
cision in the two Boston oleomargarine cases is bound 
to have a wide influence on the legislation and trade 
of the country at large. 
X X X 
Four years ago, abhorrent of the trickery, rascality 
and perjury by means of which taxes on personal 
property were evaded in New York city, the tax com¬ 
missioners advised the total abolition of all taxes on 
that kind of property on the ground that their collec¬ 
tion was so unequal and unjust as to make it a mock¬ 
ery and an insult to the few property holders who 
made honest returns. It is notorious that the assess¬ 
ment of personal property in the metropolis has been 
as low as 10 per cent of its actual value, and probably 
it has never been over 25 per cent of it. A year ago, 
an effort to correct this was made by the imposition 
of a succession tax. As it proved impossible to reach 
a man’s personal property when he was alive, it was 
determined to tax it when he died, and when, for a 
time at least, it came within reach of the law, as the 
heirs required the assistance of the courts to be put in 
possession of their inheritances. This mode of taxa¬ 
tion has worked well and produced a much larger 
revenue than was expected. Moreover, a new law 
was passed a few months ago not only putting the tax¬ 
payer under oath, but ordering an investigation where 
there was reason to doubt the returns made by him. 
The commissioners enforced the law, and the results, 
as shown by the returns just published, show an 
increase of $47,570,464 in tne assessment of personal 
property in New York city in 1893 over 1892. This is 
a hopeful step in the right direction, and will be 
hailed with satisfaction in all parts of the Union, for 
everywhere complaints are loud and bitter that by 
dishonest means, personal property has hitherto 
evaded its legitimate proportion of the public burdens. 
A great deal of stress has been laid on the danger 
to our wheat growers from competition with the pro¬ 
duct from British India, on account of the low cost of 
labor there. Certainly in no land with a permanent 
form of society and established industries are wages 
lower than in that country. The ryots, or peasants, 
obtain merely a bare subsistence, which is nearly tan¬ 
tamount to a breech clout and a handful of rice or 
millet. Official statistics, however, show that the 
labor involved in producing an acre of wheat costs 
$6.17 on irrigated and $5.07 on non-irrigated land 
in Oude and the Northwest Provinces, as against $3 86 
in Kansas. Thirty cents a bushel will raise wheat in 
Minnesota, while it costs 53 cents on the Ganges 
With labor at five cents a day, it costs 60 cents to cut 
an acre of wheat in India, while the machinery of 
our Western States will harvest it for 50 cents. 
Everywhere high wages are paid for good and low 
wages for poor labor, and the noorest sort is given by 
the weak, poorly fed and ignorant farm laborers of 
India. , t } 
Kansas appears to be preeminently the State for 
political, economic and social experiments. One of 
the latest is the rapid formation of a Union of the 
farm laborers, so as to place themselves in a position 
to demand higher wages. They are now receiving 
from $15 to $20 per month, and want an increase to 
$30, and expect the Populists to indorse their claims. 
The farm laborers’ organizations in England have 
been established for nearly a generation and have had 
an enormous influence, not only in the betterment of 
the condition of the members in the way of incieased 
wages and improved surroundings ; but also on na¬ 
tional legislation—isn’t it time to expect something 
of the sort here ? On the other hand, however, the 
Greenbaek-Alliance of North Dakota holds a conven¬ 
tion to-day at Grand Forks to agree upon a regular 
schedule of farm wages, nearly one-half lower than 
last year. Then when wheat was worth 75 cents to 
$1 a bushel, farmers paid their harvesters from $2 to 
$2.50 a day. At present wheat is worth less than 50 
cents per bushel, and the highest wages are not likely 
to be over $1.20 to $1 50 a day. It certainly seems 
fair in this case to regulate wages by the price of the 
chief money crop which is usually depended on to 
pay them. Farmers can hardly be expected to work 
at a loss for the profit of their hired hands. 
X X t 
“De world do move,” says Parson Jasper, of Vir¬ 
ginia, and Missouri has lately confirmed the opinion. 
For years the State was notorious for its disregard of 
the agricultural interests of its citizens, as exempli¬ 
fied by the action of its State Board of Agriculture 
and the niggardly appropriations it made for agri¬ 
cultural purposes, as well as by the persistence with 
which those in authority insisted on the introduction 
of politics and politicians into its agricultural institu¬ 
tions. Two years ago, however, a law was passed 
broadening the power and adding to the duties of the 
Board of Agriculture, and giving it control of the 
State veterinary service, for which $10,000 were set 
aside. The working funds were also increased from 
$3 800 to $11,850. Many other improvements were 
also inaugurated in line with the suggestions of Pro¬ 
fessor Sanborn, Secretary of the Board from 1882 to 
1891, when the institution suffered a heavy blow by 
the loss of his valuable services through the political 
machinations of the old-fogies who then hampered 
the development of the Board. 
X t X 
The drought in Europe is entirely unprecedented, 
and must be extremely disastrous to agriculturists, 
and through them to the people at large. In London 
to June 14 it had lasted 104 days, and there have been 
but a few light showers since then. The Metropol¬ 
itan weather has been fairly representative of that 
throughout England, especially in the southern and 
central tiers of counties, and everywhere farmers, and 
especially those largely interested in live stock, are 
in danger of disaster or absolute ruin. On the Con¬ 
tinent affairs are no better. In many districts of Ger¬ 
many only one-third of the usual hay crop has been 
harvested. Throughout the wide area of Central Ger¬ 
many cattle and even horses have been kilied for food 
on account of dearth of forage of all sorts, while in 
other parts of the country thousands of live stock 
have died of starvation. Wherever a supply of fodder 
exists, the farmers are not allowed to sell it to the 
regular dealers, for the Imperial Treasury is purchas¬ 
ing it for distribution in the distressed districts. The 
federated governments have voted a relief fund, and 
the railroads have reduced freight charges on eve-y- 
thing sent to relieve the suffering peasants. Teams 
of oxen which would formerly have sold readily for 
700 marks, fail now to find buyers at 200. In Austria- 
Hungary and France the conditions, owing to the 
same cause, are nearly equally disastrous Every¬ 
where the cereal crops are exceptionally short, and 
hay, roots and all the other fodder crops have suffered 
still more severely. It appears certain that Europe 
this year must depend on this country for a large pro¬ 
portion of the food of its live stock as well as of its 
human population, and while American hay is likely 
to supplement the deficiency to an unprecedented ex¬ 
tent, American corn will probably be the mainstay. 
