An interesting experiment has been made in Wiltshire on the
effect of spraying potatoes during their growth with a liquid intended to save the potato crop from disease. The dreaming twice given to the growing crop (one towards the end of June, and another towards the end of July) was a mixture containing 20 lb. sulphate of copper and 10 lb. lime dissolved in one hundred gallons of water. The potatoes so sprayed turned out to be on the average much sounder than those left unsprayed. On each acre they produced on an average 2 tons 1 cwt. more of sound tubers than those which received no dressing, and the gain appears to have been due to the fact that the dressing helped the potatoes so dressed to go on growing for three, four, or five' weeks longer than those which had received no dressing. If the Irish farmers would just take this experience to heart, it would do them more good than all the boycotting and moonlighting in the world, and save them all the misery of alienated friends and irritated foes.
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