New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 255 



Experiments of 189G-97. 

 TJiird Test. 



Seed of Lorillard for a third test was planted in flats Auj^ust 

 15, 189G, in a soil composed of equal measures of well-rotted 

 manure, sand, leaf-mold and loam, all thoroughly mixed. About 

 half an inch of drainage was placed in the bottom of the flats. 

 By using a marker* to make the furrows, the seed was planted 

 at uniform depth. The seeds were put about one-fourth inch 

 apart in the row. 



On the eighth day the seeds began to germinate and all which 

 germinated on that day were marked for transplanting. Nearly 

 five hundred of the plants which germinated August 23d were 

 pricked off from the flats into two-inch pots September 2d, and 

 plunged in moss on a greenhouse bench so that the conditions 

 ef moisture, light and heat for the entire lot could be kept as 

 nearly uniform as possible. 



Rainy weather interfered with the proper preparation of soil 

 BO that the plants were not transplanted to the benches till 

 October 22d. The plants were still in good condition but they 

 would have been transplanted earlier had it not been for the 

 delay in preparing soil for the benches. 



Soil for benches. — The soil for the benches was prepared by 

 mixing thoroughly one measure of leaf-mold, one of sand, one of 

 horse manure pretty well rotted and turned several times, and 

 one of loam. The loam was composted sod piled in alternate 

 layers with manure, well-rotted and well-mixed. Enough of this 

 soil was prepared to fill benches six inches deep having an area 

 of six hundred square feet. To this was added fourteen pounds 

 of a fertilizer mixture composed of six parts by weight of acid 

 phosphate having 14 per cent available phosphoric acid and four 

 parts by weight of high-grade sulphate of potash containing the 

 equivalent of 50 per cent actual potash. This is at the ra-te of 

 five hundred pounds of the mixture per acre, taking into account 

 simply the area of bench surface. 



♦The marker consisted of a short board on which were fastened paraUel strips of wood 

 •oe-fourih of an inch thicl<. By pressing the marker on the soil furrows were made by 

 these BtrlDS which were uniformly one- fourth of an iuch deep. 



