FERTILIZERS FOR GRAPES 103 



ver Creek; and J. T. Barnes, Prospect Station. The soil in 

 these vineyards included gravelly loam, shale loam and clay 

 loam, all in the Dunkirk series, and the experiments covered 

 from two to two and a half acres in three cases and about five 

 acres in each of the other vineyards. The work continued four 

 years in all but one of the experiments, which it was necessary 

 to end after the second year. 



"The general plan of the tests was much like that at Fre- 

 donia in most of the vineyards, with the additions of plats for 

 stable manure and for leguminous and non-leguminous cover 

 crops with and without lime. From two to six check plats 

 were left for comparison in each vineyard. As already stated 

 the results were often inconsistent in duplicate plats in the 

 same vineyard, and if one test appeared to point definitely in a 

 certain direction, the indication would be negatived by results 

 in other vineyards. In these experiments the yield of fruit 

 was the only index to the effect of treatments as it was not possi- 

 ble to weigh leaves or pruned wood, or to count the canes left. 



"Nitrogen and potassium in combination, which gave the 

 largest gains and greatest profit in the Station vineyard at 

 Fredonia, showed a 13 per ct. increase in yield on one plat in 

 the, Jennings vineyard and a 9 per ct. decrease on the other; 

 in the Miner vineyard this combination apparently resulted in 

 a 25 per ct. increase ; in the Lee vineyard in a 2% per ct. loss ; 

 in the Hamilton vineyard a 17 per ct. gain ; and in the Grandin 

 vineyard neither gain nor loss. In only two of the five vine- 

 yards in which this combination was tested was the gain great 

 enough to pay the cost of the fertilizer applied. Similar dis- 

 crepancies, or absence of profitable gain, 'friark the use of the 

 other fertilizer combinations. 



"Even stable manure, the standby of the farmer and fruit- 

 grower, when applied at the rate of five tons per acre each 

 spring, and plow r ed in, did not, on the average, pay for itself. 

 Indeed, there were few instances among the 60 comparisons 



