New York Agricultural Experiment Station, 



133 



COMPOSITION OF TUBERS. 



As in 1902, the sprayed potatoes yielded more tubers to the hill 

 and the larger average size than the unsprayed ; but in chemical 

 composition the difference was so slight as to appear unimportant. 



SOME BUSINESS EXPERIMENTS. 



OBJECT OF THE EXPERIMENTS. 



There are many persons who question the reliability of the results 

 obtained in experiments like the Station ten-year experiments de- 

 scribed in this bulletin. .They doubt that such results can be ob- 

 tained in ordinary farm practice. The objections to the experiments 

 are: (i) They are on too small a scale (three-tenths of an acre) ; 



(2) the spraying is done more thoroughly than farmers would do it; 



(3) it is impossible to determine accurately the expense of the spray- 

 ing; (4) the idea is prevalent that the Station potatoes are given 

 extra good care in order that large yields may be obtained. 



These objections were quite fully discussed in Bulletin 221. pages 

 257-261 ; but in order to settle the matter and determine the actual 

 profit in spraying potatoes under ordinary farm conditions the follow- 

 ing business experiments were made. 



PLAN OF THE EXPERIMENTS. 



In the spring of 1903 the Station arranged with five farmers in 

 different parts of the State to keep an account of their spraying 

 operations on potatoes. An accurate record was kept of all the ex- 

 pense of the spraying including labor, chemicals and wear on ma- 

 chinery. One or more rows were left unsprayed except that they 



