Potato Blight.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 23 October 1917, Page 3

Potato Blight.

.—.— LIME TREATMENT. Mr W. Harris, Fields Inspector, Ohakune, supplies some particulars regarding a means of controling potato blight by dusting the plants -with lime. The treatment was adopted by him some years ago when farm manager at the Papatoetoe Orphanage, near Auckland. He states: "This method was adopted when, in spite of steeping the tubers and regular spraying the blight appeared, and by its means I was able to save crops when not a potato plant was left standing within miles. I usually got a number of boys with buckets and instructed them to throw the lime with force along the ground between the rows. The plants being wet (for the bliglit always appeared on a moist, muggy morning) the lime adhered to every part of the plant, including tlic under side of the leaves. The affected leaves soon fall, leaving numerous young shoots still frcsli and green, and usually within a week the rows are again filled up with luxuriant foliage. After leaving Papatoetoe I only grew small crops for my own use, and never sprayed at all, pinning my faith on the lime-dusting. Sometimes two or three applications were necessary during the season. It may be luck, but I have never had a single bliglit diseased tuber for ten years. I use shell-lime, but fresh hydraulic lime slacked as re(fuired, would be jjust as suitable. The main idea is to have the lime fresh and to throw it between the rows with such force as to create quite a cloud over all the patch."