86 Report of the Botanist of the 



in ordinary farm practice. The cost of spraying also depends 

 to a large extent upon the way it is managed. 



Still another factor is the severity of the diseases, downy mildew 

 and anthracnose. When the diseases do not appear until the lat- 

 ter part of August and are mild in their attacks the profit from 

 spraying will not be nearly so great as when the diseases appear 

 during the first week in August and are very virulent However, 

 so far as Long Island is concerned, it is safe to say that the diseases 

 will be sufficiently destructive in any season to justify the ex- 

 pense of spraying. 



Table Showing the Increase in Yield and the Profit from Spraying 



Cucumbers. 



.3 3>> J3jj jr nfl . 



Yield per acre. k) « -^ 03 0" .2 6 ' a 2 ** 



, ' , a> 5. •%<»% »,£ **.S 



Location of experiment. a^ 1 ** a ^ 03 a -S 



Sprayed. sp ^ ayed _ g.8o|> |p « a* | g g, 



a 



> O Ph 



Greenlawn 120,917 40,000 80,917 $97 48 $28 74 $73 74 



Deer Park 75,675 35,000 40,675 44 61' 22 10 22 51 



Mattituck 28,740 40,000 —11,260 15 60 



Smithtown Branch. 66,790 23,564 43,226 54 03 17 03 37 00 



THE PROFIT IN GROWING PICKLES. 

 Since the yield of the late cucumbers has become so discour- 

 agingly small a great many farmers have been in doubt as to 

 whether the crop is any longer a profitable one on Long Island. 

 The very small crops in 1896 and 1897 caused a good many to 

 give up pickle growing. There were many others who decided 

 to try one more season. These have been somewhat encouraged, 

 because the crop of 1898 was considerably better than those of 

 the preceding two years. Our estimate of the average yield of 

 unsprayed fields on Long Island in 1898 is 34,000 per acre. The 

 weather conditions in 1898 were fairly good for pickles, especially 

 the months of July and August, and since the downy mildew did 

 not appear until about August 20, early planted fields produced a 



