THOROUGHNESS PAYS IN POTATO SPRAYING* 



F. H. HALL. 



Potato New York State potato-growers still have much 



spraying to learn about spraying. Many of them appar- 



neglected. ently know little about the benefits from this 

 practice, since they fail to spray at all. Others 

 evidently believe in spraying, but make too few applications or put 

 them on too carelessly to obtain the most profitable results. In 

 one of the most important potato-growing sections of the State, 

 near Rush, the Station sprayed small areas in 66 fields, in only 19 

 of which, or less than 29 per ct., did the owners spray at all. It is 

 probable that not much over one-fourth of the potato-growers of 

 the State spray. This is somewhat surprising, for the Station has 

 urged the practice for many years, and in two series of tests, one 

 extending over nine years and the other ten, has proved clearly 

 that spraying is a most profitable insurance investment. In the 

 ten-year tests under Station conditions the average increase was at 

 the rate of 97^ bushels per acre annually; while in the farmers' 

 business experiments extending over nine years, spraying gave a net 

 profit in 94 cases out of 114, or 82.4 per ct., and the average annual 

 net gain, financially, was $14.43 per acre on over 1,500 acres. Thus 

 there is a certainty of a nice gain from spraying, if made a regular 

 practice, with only slight possibility of loss in a few cases, as the 

 average loss in the 20 cases where any occurred was only $5.78 an 

 acre on 233^ acres. 



Rtat'on wnrfc The average gain in yield in the Station tests, 



fn ■ almost 100 bushels to the acre, is much better 



thorn h Pd than the average in the farmers' business tests, 

 ° ' 36 bushels; which seems to indicate a difference 



in thoroughness between Station spraying and applications made on 

 the farm. It is probably true, however, that yields at the Station, 

 on strong soil and with good culture, are better than yields generally 

 and the gains from spraying therefore greater. Hence, to test the 



* Reprint of Popular Edition of Bulletin No. 379 ; for Bulletin see p. 244. 



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