New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 217 



GENERAL CONDITIONS ATTENDING EXPERIMENTS. 



if is seen by referring to Bulletin 137 that the crop of 1897 

 was planted on timothj sod in two cases and on corn stubble in 

 two. 



Nothing in the way of organic matter was added to any plat 

 for the first two years of the experiments. In 1898 Fleet and 

 Hal lock sowed crimson clover after the potato crop was har- 

 vested and Jagger sowed rye. In neither case did the clover 

 amount to much. The rye, on the plats receiving 1,000 lbs. of 

 fertilizer per acre or over, had made a thick growth of four 

 inches in height when it was plowed down on April 2, 1899. 



In 1899 crimson clover was sown on all four farms after the 

 potatoes were dug. 



On Fleet's farm the clover winter-killed considerably, and 

 where it did not the growth was rather small. Hallock reported 

 a heavy growth in the fall which was continued in the spring 

 until plowing. The clover made a slendid sod in Jagger's field 

 excepting where grasshoppers worked, on which part rye was 

 sown with success. Robbins sowed the clover seed rather late, 

 but the plants made a fairly good catch, and when plowed under 

 in the spring covered most of the ground. 



Reference to the figures for the yield of potatoes in 1899" shows 

 that the crop was very small and in marked contrast to the crops 

 of the two previous years. This is explained by the severe 

 drought which prevailed all over Long Island during the growing 

 season for early potatoes. The crop for 1900 was larger but not 

 satisfactory. 



It should be said that these fields of potatos were under the 

 care of experienced and reliable farmers, and were given the care 

 believed to be essential to successful potato growing. 



EXPERIMENTS IN 1899 AND 1900. 



In the following tables are given the results in detail of the 

 yields of potatoes during 1899 and 1900. Similar data for 1897 

 and 1898 may be found in Bulletins 137 and 154, 



