Vol. I,XXX. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
333 W. 30th St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK. JUNE 4. 1921 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 26. 1870. at the Post 
Office at New York. N. Y'.. under the Act of March 3. 1870. 
No. 4941 
Experience in 
T he POTATO ENEMIES.—Potato spraying for 
the control of insect pests and fungus diseases, 
of which late blight is one of the worst offenders, 
has long been recommended by agricultural experts. 
The most successful potato growers spray, but far 
too small a proportion of the total acreage of this 
country is sprayed and too much of the spraying is 
not more than half done. 
CROP INSURANCE.—Spraying is purely a crop 
Successful Potato Spraying, 
Tart I. 
acre as cost of spraying. The grower receives, by 
the end of the season, returns which pay him big 
profits on his initial investment. Potato spraying 
insurance is sure pay. Crop insurance will pay only 
when damages to tin* crop are actually experienced. 
In one case the grower invests a small amount, 
knowing that the investment will through increased 
crop yields pay hack to him several times the initial 
expense; in the other case lie invests for crop 
time. Then the grower had to haul out of the 
Cellar during the Winter 7fi to 90 per cent of tin* 
remaining crop, which was apparently all right, at 
digging time, but which went bad in storage. 
WHY THIS NEGLECT?—Why do not more 
growers spray? The principal reason probably is 
that they do not realize how paying an investment 
spraying is. 11* they did realize it they would find 
some way to get their fields sprayed. There are a 
Drop Nozzle Spray Boom for Young Plants. Fig. 300 Type of Spray Boom for Larger Plants. Fig. 302 
insurance. The cost of spraying is the yearly pay¬ 
ment on a policy, but there is a difference in the 
returns for the expenditure. Crop insurance writing 
by insurance companies is rapidly coming to the 
front. In insurance for hail damage a premium is 
charged of from $.'5 to $6 per $100, depending upon 
the crop. In only rare cases does the insured receive 
money returns for the investment. In potato spray¬ 
ing an investment is made of from $10 to $20 per 
insurance a like amount, hoping that he never will 
receive any payments because of crop damage. In 
New York State during the season of 1920 it Yvas 
estimated that 10 per cent of the total crop was lost 
by late blight rot, and this loss was in the leading 
potato producing State in our country. To many of 
us 10 per cent seems extremely low as we remember 
many fields of potatoes where 75 per cent or more of 
the total yield was left on the ground at digging 
number of ways of doing this. If one cannot afford 
a machine of his own he can usually club together 
with one or two of his neighbors or join a potato 
spraying organization for community spraying. The 
association will purchase a sprayer and hire a man 
to operate the machine for the season. Between 50 
and 75 acres can be properly sprayed in this way. 
This would depend upon the size of the fields per 
farm and the distance of the haul from farm to farm. 
Harvesting a Field of “ Certified ” Potatoes. Fig. 301 
Yield from Sprayed Rom at Left; JJnsprayed at Right. 
