WAUPACA REPUBLICAN POST

August 5, 1909

 

Potato Spraying

 

            Potato growers are urged in the bulletin recently sent out from the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin to attend to the matter of spraying potatoes to prevent blight.  The Station is conducting an experiment on the farm of John Pinkerton just north of the city where farmers are invited to meet the representatives of the Station.

            Early potato blight develops rapidly after Aug. 1, and maybe recognized by the appearance of dense black spots on the leaves, around which yellow areas appear.  Spraying should not be delayed later than Aug. 15, even in late varieties, and should be done thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture.

            To prepare Bordeaux mixture, weigh out forty pounds of blue vitrol, in a burlap sack, and suspend it over night in forty gallons of water. Slake fifty pounds of fresh lime in another half barrel of water.  Then mix the Bordeaux mixture as follows:  Blue vitrol, eight pounds; lime, ten pounds; water, 100 gallons.

            To make 100 gallons of Bordeaux mixture, pour eight gallons of blue vitrol stock solution into one mixing barrel and fill it with water.

            Pour five gallons of the lime solution into another barrel and fill that with water, stirring thoroughly.  Then let two men pour equal amounts of each solution through a gunny sack into a third barrel, which will make enough solution to fill a 100-gallon spraying tank.