As a mother was bribing her little boy with a quarter so he would behave, she said, "Why do I always have to pay you to be good?
Why can't you be good for nothing like your dad?"
Pierre-Marie-Alexis MillardetDied 15 Dec 1902 at age 64 (born 13 Dec 1838).French botanist who developed the first successful fungicide and also saved the vineyards of France from destruction by the greenish yellow grape phylloxera, an aphidlike plant pest introduced into Europe on vines imported from the United States for grafting (1858-63). The insect swiftly spread extensive destruction. Millardet controlled this plague with resistant American vines as grafting stock, but these brought in the downy mildew fungus. In Oct 1882, he saw chemicals used by farmers for other reasons (a mixture of copper sulfate, lime and water) and after three years of testing, he found it acted as a suitable fungicide for the mildew. Known as the Bordeaux mixture, was the first fungicide to receive large-scale use the world over. |
