New York Agricultural Experiment IStatiom. lol 



ties. A year later Mr. Kinney ^^ reported the same condition in 

 Rhode Island. During the past three yeans Dr. Halsted has re- 

 ported the Palmetto as showing Ices rust than other varieties in 

 New Jersey. As already stated, in 1900, recently-set Palmetto 

 plants were injured more by the spring stage of the rust than 

 were the Conover's Colossal plants of the eame age in the same 

 fielid. Similar conditions occurred on the fields of the Oneida 

 Community Limited, in Madison County, New York. In one 

 field containing several varieties, the Palmetto showed no ad- 

 vantage over the others. The fields on Long Island have been 

 watched every year since 1896 with the result that only slight, 

 if any, differences in favor of the Palmetto were to be noticed, 

 except that in some cases it did not succumb as early. Of course 

 there is a bare possibility that the Long Island growers have 

 a weak strain of the Palmetto variety. More frequently greater 

 differences would be seen in the same variety, apparently due 

 to such factors as age of the bed, situation with regard to other 

 fields and proximity of windbreaks. At present several other 

 varieties are being advertised as "rust proof." Undoubtedly 

 seedling varieties will be found which will succumb to the attacks 

 of the rust more slowly than others; but as the beds get older 

 or a little mismanagement exhausts them they will finally get 

 started downward and then go under. Hence at present we 

 would recommend that no one put too much faith in "rust 

 proof " varieties and expect them to resist the continued attacks 

 of the rust without some effort on the part of the grower to check 

 the spread of the disease. 



SOIL CONDITIONS. ' 



Mr. Kinney,2o Botanist of the R. I. Station, says: "So far as 

 observed neither the character of the land nor the kind of fer- 

 tilizer used, nor the method of cultivation practised has had any 

 noticeable influence upon the development of the asparagus rust." 



"^ Rural New Yorker, 56: 658, Oct 9, 1897; also E. I. Agr. Exp. Sta. Kept 

 1S97, p. 320. 

 "Rural New Yorker, 5G:6rj8, Oct. 9, 1S97. 



