EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS 



163 



POTATOES (18 Inches Apart, 4 Feet IJetween Rows). 



Eight varieties of potatoes were planted on !May 27, 28 and 29, with 3 to 5 eyes 

 in each hill. Shallow cultivation was kept up until the first week in July, when 

 on account of excessive rains, the hills were ridged just enough to leave a deep 

 furrow in the center of each row. Potato beetles were not very numerous, requiring 

 one spraying for the first brood ahd four for the second. On account of excessive 

 rains all varieties commenced to show signs of leaf blight during blossoming time, 

 and subsequently became seriously affected. All were entirely free from scab. They 

 were har\csled September 12, 1.5 to 20 per cent of the crop having rotted on account 

 of the heavy rains during the preceding ten days. An additional loss of 10 per cent 

 must be ascribed to seed rotting before germination on account of excessive rains, 

 and to plants dying soon after germination, on such places where log heaps had 

 been burned shortly before planting time and had left the ground saturated with an 

 excess of potash. Of the total yield, 3 bushels, or 11 per cent were small and un- 

 merchantable. The following is a list of the varieties planted, giving the yield in 

 bushels of potatoes of merchantable size, the number of hills planted and the 

 yield per acre. 



Variety. 



Carman Xo. 1... 

 Carman No. 3.. . 



Roberta 



Harrington Peer 



Battles Best 



Mill's Banner 



Rose of Erin 



Montana Rose... 



STRAWBERRIES, FRUIT BUSHES, GRAPES AND FRUIT TREES. 



The fir>t jjlanting done at the Station was the setting out of strawberry plants, 

 fruit bushes and fruit trees, the work beginning ^May 10. Since no land was cleared 

 on the first day of ilay, it could not be expected that the ground could be worked 

 into a fit condition to receive plants raised many hundreds of miles south of the 

 Station as early as they should be set out. Strawberry plants were sent earlier 

 than the time set for shipment and arrived a week before the ground was ready. AH 

 other fruit varieties were delayed in transit, reaching the Station nearly three weeks 

 after being shipped. A large percentage of them were in a very bad condition, the 

 roots being nearly dried up. New shoots had in some instances grown fully two inches 

 long and dried up again. 3Iany plum and cherry trees had started to blossom. A 

 second shipment of forty fruit trees arrived late in the season in extremely bad 

 order and but eight survived. Careful nursing revived all other trees and plants, 

 and but one plum tree failed to grow. Deep aiul thorough cultivation followed and 

 was kept up continually until July, great pains being taken' not to disturb the 

 roots and bxit two gooseberry bushes <lied from improper planting. The excessive rains 

 which followed materially injured all plants, gooseberry bushes being badly affected 

 by milden' and cnrrrant buslios but slightly, while all fruit trees suffered from leaf 

 curl and leaf blight: the apples severely, the plums nearly as much, the pe<ars and 

 cherries but slightly. Spraying against insects was made necessary once in each 

 week until July and four more sprayings were applied thereafter. Quite a num- 

 ber of bushes were stunted and over a hundred strawberry ])lants lingered and finally 

 died from an excessive amount of potash in tlie soil on the i)laces where log heaps 

 had been burned before planting time. Surface cultivation was kept up during 

 July and the first part of August and fruit trees materially recovered from the 

 effects of leaf blight during the last dry ten days of Augtist. The hastening of wood 

 ripening was rendered useless by the unceasing rains of September. 



