EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 81 



The field work of the Station has been limited by the fact that at best 

 the soil is far from homogeneous and has been used for fertilizers and 

 other experiments so many years that there remains no place on the 

 College fann to try any plot experiments whatever in which the value of 

 the results is based upon the comparisons of yields of adjacent similar 

 plots. In one case where a series of plots were planted alike in every 

 respect as far as it is possible to observe, the differences in yields of 

 adjacent plots were greater than in another series of similar plots where 

 one factor was varied. It is, therefore, impossible to tell whether a differ- 

 ence in results is due to a known difference in conditions or to a lack of 

 homogenity in the soil itself. 



Remembering these limitations the work at the home Station was con- 

 fined to the following lines of experiments : 



I. Experiments in coo])eration with the several divisions of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. 



(a) Sugar Beets. — Mother beets were grown on the farm of Mr. M. D. 

 Picket, south of Okemos, from seed furnished by the department. The 

 individual beets to be reserved for planting in 1903 were selected first on 

 the basis of conformity to a fixed standard of shape and size of top. The 

 expert sent from Washington aided in deciding what this standard should 

 be and aided also in outlining the method of applying the standard to the 

 work of selection. Next the form and size of beet root was considered and 

 all mother beets rejected which did not have a smooth and typical shape. 

 Finally, on removal from the pits in which they were stored during the 

 winter the beets were tested by boring out a cylindrical core through the 

 center and analyzing the part removed. 



Each step in the selection culled out a good per cent of the beets and 

 there remained but a relatively small number to be set out in the spring 

 of 1903. These selected mother beets were planted in one of the Station 

 plots of the College farm in April, 1903, and at the date of this report 

 are in vigorous health and show a full stand of blossoms. A consignment 

 (if seed from Washington received in the spring of 1903 is sown to carry 

 forward the study of the problem of beet seed production in America. 



A second cooperative experiment with sugar beets relates to the pre- 

 \ention of leaf blight by fertilizing and by spraying. The use of nitrate of 

 soda is suggested by the well observed fact that vigorous plants are more 

 resistant to disease than weaker ones. Whether these or other fertilizers 

 will aid in reducing the devastations of the blight remains to be seen. 



Certain plots are sprayed at specified intervals with Bordeaux mixture. 

 The season of 1902 was so wet that the results were purely negative. 



A third experiment with beets carried forward with the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washirston related to the influence of environment on the 

 quality of the beet. This work is reported by the department and pub- 

 lished in the bulletins issued by the Division of Chemistry. 



(b) Graps seed has been furnished by the Division of Agrostology and 

 in cooperation with that division has been sown at several points along 

 the west coast with the hope of staying the encroachment of sand upon the 

 agricultural land. It is too early to report results. 



(c) The Department of Agriculture furnished in the spring of 1903 

 the seed of certain legumes, notably a small bean of Arabia to be used as 

 human food, and selected varieties of cow peas and soy beans to be used 

 as forage crops or for green manure. 



(d) The Station is carrying forward in cooperation with the Division 



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