New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 585 



effects on the fruit. 



No differences were to be detected in the fruit from the various 

 plats in 1909, 1910 and 1911. The grapes in all respects compared 

 very favorably with those in the average well-cared-for vineyard 

 on the same soil type — no better, no worse. Nor were any 

 differences noted in time of maturing. In 1912, however, it began 

 to appear that the fruit from the plats on which nitrogen had been 

 used was superior in compactness of cluster, size of cluster and size 

 of berry. The crop also matured earlier than in the check plats. 

 The grapes in the phosphorus and potassium plats, while superior 

 to those in the checks in these respects, were not equal in quality 

 of fruit to those from the plats which had had nitrogen. The 

 clusters from the check were poorly filled out and both clusters and 

 berries were small. In 1913 these differences, with the exception of 

 earlier maturity, were even more marked. The favorable ripening 

 season and the smaller crop probably tended to equalize the time of 

 maturity between the fertilized and the unfertilized plats. In 1912 

 ripeness was an important consideration and no doubt the fertilizers 

 played an important part in hastening maturity. 



EFFECTS ON THE VINES: THE FOLIAGE 



In the growing seasons of 1909, 1910 and 1911 there were no 

 indications of differences in the amount or color of the foliage on 

 the vines on the different plats. In 1912, though, the plats fertilized 

 with nitrogen showed more abundant foliage, which was of better 

 color than that on the other plats, the check showing the poorest 

 foliage of all. During 1913 these differences became more apparent; 

 even the casual observer could easily note them. The check was 

 so inferior to any other plat that one not knowing the experiment 

 would haVe suspected the presence of disease as the cause of the poor 

 condition. The nitrogen plats were distinctly superior to the phos- 

 phorus and potassium plats in amount and color of foliage — more 

 so than in 1912. The years 1912 and 1913, in which these differences 

 in leaf characteristics were first observable, it is remembered, are 

 the years in which marked differences were prominent in fruit 

 characteristics. 



