EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 131 



rather more effectual than kerosene emulsion, or whale-oil soap. When 

 pure kerosene is used, the amount required will be much less than will 

 be needed with any other preparation, but care must be taken to use no 

 more than will be necessary to reach all parts of the plants. If a larger 

 amount is used, there will be danger of the oil running down the trunk 

 and branches and injuring if not destroying the plant. As the peach 

 seems particularly subject to injury from the use of this material, we 

 would advise against its use upon that plant, but upon the other fruits it 

 can be used with safety, if the application is made upon sunny days after 

 the sap has commenced to rise in the spring. If used during the winter, 

 while the bark and wood are comparatively dry, the danger will be in- 

 creased. While good results can be secured from kerosene applied with 

 small atomizers, if it is to be used in water, it will be advisable to make 

 the application with some of the pumps that have been devised for the 

 purpose. 



FERTILIZER EXPERIMENTS. 



The work of testing the relative merits of different fertilizers and their 

 value as compared with that of stable manure has been continued, al- 

 though on a smaller scale than in previous years. In some instances the 

 results have justified the expense, as the increased value of the product 

 was more than sufficient to pay for the cost of the fertilizer, but in no 

 instance was an increased yield obtained from the use of fertilizers as 

 cheaply as with stable manure. Several experiments were tried in which 

 chemical fertilizers in various combinations were placed upon land that 

 had been treated with stable manure the previous year, but with a variety 

 of crops the benefits secured from the use of the fertilizer were compara- 

 tively small. In some cases the yield was no more than where no fertilizer 

 was used, and in others the gain was but slight. In the spring of 1898, 

 sections of the lawn upon the College campus were treated with wood 

 ashes and various combinations of mineral manures. The season was 

 quite favorable for the growth of the grass, and the unfertilized lawn 

 appeared to be in rather better condition than usual, but marked bene- 

 fits were noticed where the wood ashes were used at the rate of fifty bush- 

 els per acre. Upon the plots fertilized with wood ashes and ground bone, 

 the results during the entire season were even better than where the 

 ashes alone were used, and the results from ground bone alone, used at 

 the rate of three hundred pounds per acre, compared favorably with those 

 where fifty bushels of wood ashes were used, especially upon clay soil. 

 Where sodium nitrate was used alone (150 pounds per acre), the appear- 

 ance of the lawn in the spring was much better than where it was unfer- 

 tilized, and the grass made an earlier growth and was of a richer color for 

 the first month or so than upon the plots where ground bone and wood 

 ashes were used; but, later on, the benefit was hardly noticeable where 

 the sodium nitrate alone was used, but where combined with ground bone 

 and wood ashes the plots retained their superiority throughout the sea- 

 son. Other sections were treated with potash salts at the rate of two 

 hundred pounds per acre, both alone and combined with sodium nitrate 

 and ground bone. The results secured were practically the same as 

 where wood ashes were used. Where wood ashes can be cheaply ob- 

 tained they will form a desirable fertilizer for the lawn, if used in quanti- 



