924 Popular Editions of Station Bulletins of the 



Dunkirk; Miss Frances Jennings, Silver Creek; and J. T. Barnes, 

 Prospect Station. The soil in these vineyards included gravelly- 

 loam, shale loam and clay loam, all in the Dunkirk series, and the 

 experiments covered from two to two and a half acres in three cases 

 and about five acres in each of the other vineyards. The work con- 

 tinued four years in all but one of the experiments, which it was neces- 

 sary to end after the second year. 



The general plan of the tests was much like that at Fredonia in 

 most of the vineyards, with the additions of plats for stable manure 

 and for leguminous and non-leguminous cover crops with and with- 

 out lime. From two to six check plats were left for comparison 

 in each vineyard. As already stated the results were often incon- 

 sistent in duplicate plats in the same vineyard, and if one test ap- 

 peared to point definitely in a certain direction, the indication 

 would be negatived by results in other vineyards. In these experi- 

 ments the yield of fruit was the only index to the effect of treat- 

 ments; as it was not possible to weigh leaves or pruned wood, or 

 to count the canes left. 



Nitrogen and potassium in combination, which 



Commercial gave the largest gains and greatest profit in the 

 fertilizers Station vineyard at Fredonia, showed a 13 per ct. 

 in cooperative increase in yield on one plat in the Jennings vine- 

 tests, yard and a 9 per ct. decrease on the other; in the 

 Miner vineyard this combination apparently re- 

 sulted in a 25 per ct. increase, in the Lee vineyard in a 2\ per ct. 

 loss; in the Hamilton vineyard a 17 per ct. gain; and in the Grandin 

 vineyard neither gain nor loss. In only two of the five vineyards 

 in which this combination was tested was the gain great enough 

 to pay the cost of the fertilizer applied. Similar discrepancies, or 

 absence of profitable gain, mark the use of the other fertilizer 

 combinations. 



Even stable manure, the standby of the farmer 



Manure and and fruit-grower, when applied at the rate of five 

 cover crops in tons per acre each spring, and plowed in, did not, 



cooperative on the average, pay for itself. Indeed, there were 

 tests. few instances among the 60 comparisons possible, 



in which more than a very moderate profit could 

 be credited to manure. The average increase in yield following 

 the application of manure alone was less than a quarter of a ton of 

 grapes to the acre; while the use of lime with the manure increased 

 the gain to one-third of a ton per acre. The ton of lime to the 

 acre annually would not be paid for by the gain of 175 pounds of 

 grapes. Cover crops were used in five of the six cooperative ex- 

 periments; and proved even less adapted to increasing crop yields 

 than did the manure. There was no appreciable gain, on the aver- 

 age, from the use of mammoth clover; indeed, a slight loss must be 

 recorded for the clover except upon the plats which were also limed, 

 and even with the lime the average yields on check plats and 



