408 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



CULTURAL METHODS. 



All of the test plots started last year had to be reset and started 

 again. This year with the reset blocks we started tests in the blocks 

 with four varieties of Japanese ])lums, one row each of Abundance. 

 Eed June, Burbank and Satsuma ; three rows, one each of the following 

 European plums ; Grand Duke, Bradshaw and Monarch : also one row 

 each of Wagener, Wealthy and Oldenburg apples and Engle's Mamniotli, 

 Kalamazoo and Elberta ])eaches. Each of these plots are divided into 

 three sub-plots, one of which will be treated by the usual mulch method 

 of culture, another by cultivating until the tirst week in August and 

 then seeding to a cover crop, and the other Avill be cultivated the same 

 as the second, but no cover crop is to be sown. The trees will be brought 

 up under these various methods of culture and the results noted from 

 time to time. The experiment will be well under way by next year. A 

 similar experiment was started on bearing Wagener trees in the orchard 

 of Mr. C. J. Monroe of South Haven. 



The pears and cherries in the northeast block and tlie pears in the 

 southeast block have been left in sod for the last three years without 

 any perceptible change in their condition. The cherries in the south- 

 west block were jmt in sod this year. 



FERTILIZERS. 



Several tests of commercial fertilizers on fruit trees and of the dilfer- 

 ence in commercial fertilizers, barnyard manure and cover crojjs wei'e 

 started both at the station and ('ooi)erativelv. It was Avith some tronblc 

 that places to do the cooperati\e work were obtained. Two i)laces were 

 secured, those of Mr. C. J. Monroe and Mr. Geo. Chatfield, both of 

 South Haven. Next year an endeavor will be made to obtain other 

 ]>]aces so that the tests will be of more general ajiplication. They will 

 be continued through a term of years and results will be noted freiiueiitly. 



SPRAYING. 



The station orchard was sprayed this spring with lime-sulphur mix- 

 ture. The work was started during the latter i)art of April and was con- 

 tinued until the l)uds had Avell started. Tlic opening buds of the pears 

 were slightly injured by the late spraying but not so much but that 

 they overcame the injury by the middle of the season. It had been 

 previously noticed that the opening buds of the pear and apple are 

 more susceptible to late spraying of lime-sulphur than those ol" the 

 peach. As the spraying was done late in the season it was alloAA'ed 

 to take the ])lace oT the first spraying Avith Bordeaux mixture as a 

 fungicide and served most efficiently for that purpose. 



Having tested most of the ])rej)ared scale-destroying mixtures for 

 several years, the tests this year were limited to the newer ones that 

 had not been tested by us. The freeze seriously interfered with the 

 results, many of the trees sprayed dying during the summer. Many 

 scale were also killed by the freeze and it will not be possible to give 

 ])recise and satisfactory I'csults this year. 



'JMie folloANing preparalious wci-e lesled last spring and compared 



