314 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



been removed and those remaining are mostly young trees of the newer 

 kinds, a number of which died this season from the effects of the severe 

 winter of 1903. 



A new power sprayer was added to the Station equipment this spring. 

 The machine is manufactured by the Niagara Gas Sprayer Co., Buf- 

 falo, New York. The machine consists of a 100-gallon boiler-iron tank 

 with pressure gauge and hose connections. The power is furnished by 

 pressure from a tube containing liquid carbonic acid. This pressure 

 makes an ideal spray and has the advantage of having no pumps or 

 valves to bother or get out of order. The outfit gave good satisfaction 

 in every way except that the gas is rather expensive, and some difficulty 

 was experienced in securing it when needed. As an enormous pressure 

 is required to liquefy the gas, it can only be obtained in the larger 

 cities. The cost of a 50 pound tube of gas is |3.00, besides freight one 

 way, and this is sufficient for spraying out from G50 to 700 gallons of 

 material. If, however, the cost of the gas or poAver can be lowered and 

 the supply can be relied upon, it would prove a valuable addition to 

 modern, power-spraying equipments. 



With a view of determining some points of value in applying plant 

 food to fruit trees in the form of chemicals, one tree each of a number 

 of varieties of all of the tree fruits, with the exception of the peaches, 

 were given an application of two pounds of nitrate of soda and four 

 pounds of muriate of potash. The treated trees were from twelve to six- 

 teen years old and well into bearing in most cases. No definite con- 

 clusion could be reached after observing the trees during the growing 

 and fruiting season, as no effects could be seen which could be directly 

 attributed to the application of this mixture. The fertility of the soil 

 where the applications were made had been kept up by the use of stable 

 manure every other year and turning under cover crops and, for this 

 reason, it is not strange that no results were noticed the first year. An 

 application of one pound of sulphate of iron was also given to one tree 

 of all kinds of fruits and nothing beneficial or detrimental was noticed 

 from the applications. 



POTATOES. 



Having a small piece of unoccupied land from which peach trees were 

 removed, several varieties of potatoes were tested, using northern grown 

 seed. There were ten varieties each of early and late kinds. Some were 

 new while others were well-known varieties. 



The soil was a sandy loam, well enriched with stable manure. Two 

 pounds of seed of each kind were used and were cut into twenty-five 

 pieces. The hills were eighteen inches apart in rows four feet apart, 

 and one piece was placed in a hill. The early varieties were planted 

 May 8th, and the late kinds June 10th. All were dug September 9th 

 with the exception of a few hills of the early kinds, Avhich were dug 

 July 20th to note the marketable })otatoes for early digging. Record 

 was made of the gross and marketable weights of each variety. No 

 rot made its appearance with any of the varieties and blight upon but 

 two varieties, Noroton Beauty and Early Michigan, both early kinds, 

 and the first named variety was quite badly affected. Three applica- 



