44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



reduces the selling value of our product much in Vermont, 

 as we sell them very promptl}^ Avhen this shows but little. 



Professor Brooks. I would like to call attention to a dis- 

 covery which we have made in Amherst this past summer, 

 partly because I think it will be of general interest, but 

 largely because I should like to draw out Professor Jones in 

 a slightly different line. He has stated more than once that 

 he believes we must approach this question of disease largely 

 from the physiological side ; and, while he has attained a 

 gi'eat degree of success in protecting the potato by spraying, 

 I presume he would agree with me that the ideal which we 

 should hold before ourselves is so to learn all conditions 

 which influence the crop as to produce the crop without the 

 spray, if practicable. Now, he has dwelt particularlj' on 

 the importance of getting a resistant variety. I fully agree 

 with him in that position. We have begun trying to pro- 

 duce a more rust-resistant type of asparagus. There are 

 no discoveries to report, as yet. I have simply to say that 

 most striking differences were observed, some individual 

 plants being almost absolutely rust-free. I do not purpose 

 dwelling on that particular phase of the matter. There is 

 evidentlj^ much useful work to be done. The observation to 

 which I refer is this : We have one field where for about 

 eight or nine years we have been comparing different potash 

 salts. There are seven potash salts under comparison, and 

 we have five duplicates of every treatment. Every year 

 during the last eight or nine one plot in each set has had no 

 potash. The potato was the crop this year ; it was clover 

 last year. All the plots were sprayed ; we began spraying 

 early, and sprayed as thoroughly as we kncAv how, three 

 times in all. We protected the potatoes from both early and 

 late blight, and we had no rot on any of the i)lots in every 

 set where we had used potash ; but on the part where we 

 had used no potash for seven or eight years the crop blighted 

 very early, and the crops were seriously reduced. I am led 

 to believe that there is an undiscovered country in the direc- 

 tion of the use of the fertilizer and the chemical condition 

 of the soil, and I would like to hear from Professor Jones 

 on that point. 



