Letter from Melbourne

摘要

One of the chemical pesticides we are still allowed to use in our gardens,and one I believe that is permitted for'organic'growers,is good old Bordeaux Mixture:a slurry of copper sulfate and lime that probably contains all sorts of copper hydroxides.It is recommended for all kinds of fungal attacks,and it's pretty obvious that it was originally used for treating vines in the great Bordeaux wine district.I had never thought about when or by whom it was introduced,until I came across a little book entitled The Discovery of Bordeaux Mixture.Designated a Phytopathological Classic,and put out by the gloriously named American Phytopathological Society,it consists of translations from the French of three papers published in 1885 by Pierre Marie Alexis Millardet(1838-1902).