FiEivD e;xpe;riments. 15 



not as effective as that applied wet, or the showers following the 

 application of July 25 washed off the dusted more than it did the 

 sprayed. Whatever the explanation, the dusted rows were in- 

 fested and the sprayed rows were not. 



The Sal Bordeaux was applied with a small hand "cyclone" 

 duster, two rows being treated at a time. The nozzle of the 

 machine was so directed that the cloud of dust striking the row 

 nearest passed through it or was carried by the wind to the 

 adjoining row. Of course the nearest row received the more 

 powder and was more thoroughly dusted, but the dust was plain- 

 ly visible on the second row and some reached rows beyond. 

 With this apparatus one man could dust an acre ^n hour. 



There was no blight on the whole piece and but little bUght 

 in the county in 1905, so that the results are not. regarded as 

 conclusive. The yields were practically the same on the 5 plots, 

 running from 100 to 102 barrels (275 to 281 bushels) of mer- 

 chantable potatoes. 



It is planned to repeat the experiment in 1906 and to use a 

 power duster devised for potatoes. 



Co-operative Experiments With Alfalfa. 

 The Station began experimenting with alfalfa in 1903, but 

 because of the lateness of sowing, poor preparation of soil, and 

 other unfavorable conditions, that season's sowings gave no 

 decisive results. 



EXPERIMENTS BEGUN IN I904. 



The alfalfa seed (9,452, from Turkestan) used in 1904 was 

 furnished by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. "This seed 

 was secured by Mr. E. A. Bessey in the fall of 1902 at Kara- 

 bulak, 25 miles north of Chimkent, Turkestan. This part of 

 Turkestan is subject to extremely cold weather in winter and 

 great heat in summer and the alfalfa seed raised there is con- 

 sidered to be the best raised in Turkestan, This seed has been 

 treated with the alfalfa tubercles and should be in condition to 

 give the best results." 



At Princeton. 



About one-half acre was sown May, 1904, on the farm of Mr. 

 J. W. Edgerly, in Princeton. The land sloped so as to afford 



