SOME FERTILIZER TESTS IN VINEYARDS.* 



F. H. HALL. 



In the Chautauqua Grape Belt the vineyard area 

 Declining increased fully one-third between 1900 and 1913, but 



grape yields the yield of grapes for the last half of this period 

 demanded was only 3| per ct. greater than for the first half. In 



investigation, other words, while the area increased, the yields per 

 acre decreased, so that many vineyards became a 

 source of loss rather than gain to their owners. The very poor crop 

 cf 1908 called attention forcefully to the need for investigation into 

 the cause, or causes, of the reduced yields, and an appropriation was 

 secured from the State Legislature to support such work. In the 

 spring of 1909 this Station leased a 30-acre farm near Fredonia on 

 which there was already a large vineyard, and sent a corps of investi- 

 gators into the field to learn, if possible, why these declines in yield 

 had occurred. 



A general survey of the situation made it clear than many vineyards 

 had been planted on soils too thin, too infertile or too poorly drained 

 to be suitable for grape culture; but many vineyards were noted, both 

 old and young, on good soils but not producing profitable annual crops. 

 Here something was evidently amiss, and it has been the object of the 

 Station studies and tests to locate the unfavorable influences. Already 

 much has been done to enable grape-growers to control certain insect 

 pests that have, at times and over quite wide areas, seriously reduced 

 crops; and directions for handling these foes have been given in 

 Bulletins 331, 344, and 359 of the Station. In this bulletin there is 

 presented a summary of five years' work in applying commercial 

 fertilizers in order to insure an ample supply of plant food for the 

 vines and the fruit they should bear. 



A preliminary survey of conditions relative to the use of fertilizers 

 in this district showed no uniformity of practice and no consistent 

 gains from the many fertilizing materials and combinations used in 

 different vineyards. The only conclusion that could be reached from 

 this survey was " that growers who had used commercial fertilizers 

 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." 



Reprint of Popular Edition of Bulletin No. 381 ; for Bulletin see p. 572. 



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