REPORT OP COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 



67 



The six year averages for the plats indicate that all have produced more 

 than ordinary crops for the period and while the showing for the check is 

 good, the fact that it dropped behind in 1912, 1913 and 1914 probably means 

 that the fertilizers are beginning to tell in the fertilized plats. We shall see 

 that the fertilized vines show improvement as well. 



Fruit Characteristics. 



No differences were to be detected in the fruit in 1909, 1910 and 1911 

 from the various plats. The grapes in all respects compared very favorably 

 with those in the average well-cared-for vineyard on the same soil type. No 

 better, no worse. Nor were any differences noted in its time of maturing. 

 But in 1912 it began to appear that the fruit from the plats on which nitrogen 

 had been used, was superior in compactness of cluster, size of cluster, size 

 of berry and matured earlier than the grapes in the check. The grapes in 

 the phosphoric acid and potash plats while superior to those in the check in 

 these respects, were not equal in quality of fruit to those of the plats which 

 had nitrogen. The clusters from the check were scraggly and both clusters 

 and berries were small. In 1913 these differences, with the exception of 

 earlier maturity, were even more marked. The favorable ripening season 

 and the smaller crop probably tended to equalize the time of maturity 

 between the fertilized and the unfertilized plats. In 1912 ripeness was an 

 important consideration and we believe that the fertilizers played an import- 

 ant part in hastening maturity. In 1914 the fruit from the plats that received 

 Nitrogen was superior to all other, while that from the phosphorus and 

 potassium rows was considerably better than the check. 



Table 2. 

 Amounts of wood pruned per acre for each plat. 



Annual Wood Growth. 



There were no indications either, in 1909, 1910 and 1911 that fertilizers 

 were producing any increase in wood growth, apparent to the eye at least. 

 In the fall of 1911, as fast as the plats were pruned, the wood was stripped 

 from the wires, forked out to the end of the rows and weighed. The weights 

 included the weights of the canes put up for the year previous in each 

 instance. Owing to unfavorable weather but seven plats were weighed at 

 this time. The remaining five were weighed early in the spring of 1912. 



