600 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



The plats receiving the nitrogenous application produced fruit 

 in the years 1912 and 1913 somewhat superior, in size of cluster, 

 size of berry and compactness, to that from the plats to which 

 phosphorus and potassium had been applied and considerably 

 superior to that from the check. The phosphorus-potassium plats 

 yielded fruit better than the check in these respects and probably 

 more mature at the time the observations were made. The nitrogen 

 has probably indirectly affected fruit characters through its action 

 in producing more vigorous wood and foliage. 



It appears that nitrogen is the limiting factor in this vineyard. 

 Appreciable results were not obtained, however, until after several 

 applications of the fertilizer had been made. 



Lime seems not to have influenced the vines in the least while 

 phosphorus and potassium, as applied in the fertilizers used, have 

 not greatly influenced the vines for the better — have not proved 

 profitable fertilizers. 



The data in the cooperative work with commercial fertilizers, 

 stable manure and green manures are confusing and unsatisfactory. 

 Unsatisfactory because of the great variability of the results from 

 the treatments in any one vineyard or in the several vineyards 

 compared with one another. Taken as a whole they do not cor- 

 roborate the work in the Station vineyard at Fredonia. 



SUGGESTIONS FROM THE RESULTS. 



The results of the several tests of which this bulletin is an account 

 throw comparatively little light on the value of fertilizers for grapes. 

 It is evident that the fertilization of vineyards, as well as of orchards, 

 fields and gardens, is so involved with other factors that only care- 

 fully planned and long continued work will give reliable results. 

 Indeed, field experiments even in carefully selected vineyards, 

 as the cooperative experiments show, may be so contradictory 

 and misleading as to be worse than useless if deductions are 

 made from the results of a few seasons. The work that has 

 been done is not without value, however, for it has brought forth 

 information about fertilizing vineyards that ought to be most helpful 

 to grape-growers. Thus the results suggest: 



First, and most important, that it is usually waste, pure and 

 simple, to make applications of fertilizers in poorly-drained vine- 

 yards, in such as suffer frequently from winter cold or spring frosts, 



