576 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



data were collected. It will be seen also that there has been an 

 increase in the number using fertilizers during the five-year period 

 and it is very probable that the increase has been proportionately 

 greater during the past four years. Of the 252 reporting as having 

 used some form of commercial fertilizer only 89 applied a complete 

 one. Seventy used kainit alone, 45 ammoniated bone, 28 tankage, 

 20 raw ground bone, 17 potash and acid phosphate, 10 bone and 

 kainit and 10 bone and muriate of potash. Quickly available forms 

 of nitrogen have been used in but few instances. The amounts 

 applied, viewed in the light of our tests, have generally been much 

 too small to be very useful. It was interesting to note that many 

 believed they had obtained decided results from the use of com- 

 mercial fertilizers, while others secured no favorable effects. 



Usually immediate returns were expected and failure to get them 

 resulted in a change of materials or a discontinuance of the use 

 of fertilizers. Some growers seem to have gone on the theory that 

 fertilization is a substitute for tillage. The data seemed to show, 

 considered broadly, that growers who had used commercial fer- 

 tilizers regularly, other conditions being the same, had secured less 

 variable crops from year to year, than those who had made irregular 

 and scant applications or none at all. 



The survey disclosed similar irregularities in the use of stable 

 manure but indicated that more confidence is placed in its use 

 by vineyardists than in commercial fertilizers. But little stock 

 is kept in this region, however, and not nearly enough manure is 

 produced to enrich vineyards, while the cost of importing is almost 

 prohibitive. The usual plan in manuring is to go over a portion 

 of the vineyard one year, another the next, and so on until all has 

 been fertilized. This practice often requires a long period to cover 

 a vineyard. Usually two or three forkfuls are thrown around the 

 base of the vine, to be spread by the plow or cultivator. These 

 amounts are not sufficient nor the mode of application such that 

 the vine can utilize the manure at maximum efficiency. 



The vineyard survey made at the beginning of the work in Chau- 

 tauqua county clearly showed two things: First, that lack of fer- 

 tility is a contributing cause in the decline of vineyards. Second, 

 that fertilizing practices were very diverse and the results uncertain. 



