24 



Dr. G. F. Atkinson (published in Bulletin Nos. 27, 36 and 41 

 of this Station) in showing the favorable effects of kainit in 

 checking the disease which that authority designated, as yellow 

 leaf blight. But kainit at the rate of 200 pounds per acre was 

 not a preventive of the form of leaf disease which was most 

 abundant on the Station farm in 1896, a disease which effected 

 little injury in comparison with that wrought by the widely 

 prevalent disease of the present year. 



A careful inspection of the field where the fertilizer ex- 

 periments were conducted in 1897 led to the conclusion that 

 the fertilizer was by no means the only factor in determining 

 the extent and distribution of the disease. The belts in which 

 the disease was most serious were not well defined, but ex- 

 tended diagonally across certain parts of the field, embracing 

 plots differently fertilized. The fact that certain irregular 

 areas were especially liable to this disease, regardless of the 

 kmd of fertilizer used, is not necessarilv in conflict with the 

 tendency of kainit to check the disease under certain condi- 

 tions. 



The subject of diseases of cotton is under investigation by 

 the Station Biologist, Prof. F. S. Earle, and the Agriculturist 

 will co-operate as far as possible in that work. 



We are not prepared to advise farmers to buy kainit 

 simply for its "rust resisting" properties. On soils defi- 

 cient in potash it is a profitable fertilizer, and apparently it 

 • may also some years be profitable for cotton in fields inclined 

 to rust, even if no marked deficiency of potash is indicated by 

 other crops. Unfortunately destructive outbreaks of rust can- 

 not be foretold. The minimum amount of kainit that can be 

 effectively used for rust has yet to be determined. 



