Prepare Bordeaux Mixture for Tomato Plants, May 16, 1919

From the front page of The Franklin Times, Friday, May 16, 1919. You can buy a Bordeaux mixture of copper sulfate, lime and water today, as it is still used as a fungicide and bactericide.

Home Demonstration Department

Tomato plants should be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture while the plants are quite young. Bight can be prevented but not cured. It is too late to apply remedies after you see the trouble. Spray one about five days before transplanting, then again five days after transplanting and repeat every 10 days until the fruit is full grown. A hard rain will frequently wash off the mixture and make it necessary to spray again. About five sprayings should be given during the season. Ten gallons of spray mixture will be necessary for each spraying. Five pounds blue-stone and five pounds of fresh stone lime will be enough for the season. Have the blue stone divided into five one-pound lots. The entire quantity of lime may be slaked at the beginning by adding water slowly until all the lumps are slaked. Keep this slaked lime in a bucket with a little water over it. As long as it is covered with water it is good, but if it is exposed to the air it will dry out and become air slaked. Lime which has been hair slacked cannot be used in Bordeaux mixture.

Use one pound blue stone, one pound quick lime and 10 gallons of water for each spraying.

To make the blue-stone solution put five gallons of water in a wooden tub. Tie the blue-stone in a coarse sack and hang it in this water near the top. Do not use a metal tub because the actin of the blue-stone on the metal will ruin the vessel. Allow several hours for the blue-stone to dissolve. This can be done more quickly by using hot water.

To make the lime solution, take one fifth of the lime mixture which has been slaked and mix it thoroughly in five gallons of water. (Line obscured) equal parts of these two solutions. It is important that they be carefully mixed and that only as much of the mixture be made as can be used at one spraying. Have the lime solution in one vessel and the copper sulphate solution in another. Have ready a third tub or other wooden vessel. Stir the solution well before using. Let two people pour the solution into the third vessel at the same time, stirring constantly to insure thorough mixing.

All pruned vines should be staked to poles from four to six feet high. One stem should be left on the pruned plants and this tied to the stake. Old clothes cut into strips are better to tie up vines than the twine as the soft cloth does not cut the vine. Usually two or three tieings are necessary to keep the plant upright. The pruning of plants gives larger fruit and more freedom from disease but not a larger crop. Unpruned vines should have a layer of pine straw around the plant, under the foliage to prevent the fruit from lying on the ground.

Have you a refrigerator? One way to keep down expense is to have a cool place in which to store food. Refrigerators with double compartments should be bought so both milk and vegetables can be kept.

The value of an oil cook stove as a summer comfort cannot be over estimated. If a new one is to be purchased by all means get one with low burners.

How about putting in a simple water system to save steps and backaches? This can be done for $15. A member of the Winston Community club draws water for his wife to wash. He estimates he walks 52 miles a year in going from the well to the wash shed. After studying over this he decided his wife walks 325 miles a year carrying water. He knows that all these steps are unnecessary, so a water system is being installed which will not cost over $25 and yet save his wife and himself. Do a little figuring yourself.