Feb., 1925] PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS 23 



Where nitrate of soda was applied to a new strawberry bed at the rate of 300 

 pounds per acre, either in the spring just before the blossoms appeared or in 

 one-third installments, a significant decrease in the yield was obtained in seven 

 trial plots out of eight. Less consistent results were obtained from the 1923 

 plots when seven out of the twelve plots fertilized with nitrate of soda showed a 

 decrease due to the treatment. 



A new bed of strawberries was set during the spring of 1924. This bed has 

 been divided into thirty one-twentieth acre plots. Six series of treatments are 

 being tested, each series consisting of five plots. All fertiUzer appHcations 

 were made on August 1, 1924, as follows: 



Series A — 400 pounds nitrate of soda per acre. 



Series B — 1000 pounds hen manure broadcast per acre. 



Series C — Check plots (no fertilizer). 



Series D — 1000 pounds acid phosphate per acre. 



Series E — 300 pounds muriate of potash per acre. 



Series F — Check plots (no fertilizer). 



Plans are now being made for installing a Skinner irrigation system for this 

 project. Providing this is installed and providing it is apparent that moisture 

 is a hmiting factor, it is planned to irrigate during the fruit season all series 

 with the exception of F, or to irrigate Series F only. At the present writing the 

 field is in excellent condition, although possibly the crop may be reduced by the 

 shortage of moisture which occurred during the month of October. 



In addition to the above, experiments are also under way to determine what 

 factors influence the size of berry, number of berries per cluster and number of 

 clusters per plant. 



The work is in charge of S. W. Wentworth (Horticulture). 



Effect of Disbudding on Apple Trees. 



Work on the investigation of the permanence of injvu-y to apple trees due to 

 disbudding by birds was continued by H. A. Rollins and G. F. Potter in the 

 orchard of R. T. Gould, at Contoocook, N. H. As was stated in the last Station 

 report, two blocks of Wealthy trees were found in this orchard nearly similar in 

 age and on somewhat similar locations, one of which had been budded by the 

 birds and one of which had not. A small part of the budding was done in 

 the winter of 1921-22, but the major share of the damage was done in the 

 winter of 1922-23. Observations on the orchard were begun in the spring 

 of 1923. 



(1) Effect ofGioivth of the Trees. 



One hundred and sixteen trees in each plot were labeled, and the diameter of 

 the trunk at a marked spot was measm-ed. The average diameter of the dis- 

 budded trees in the spring of 1923 was found to be exactly four inches. The 

 measurements were repeated in the spring of 1924, and it was found that the 

 trees had on an average gained 0.35 inch in diameter, a gain of 8.7 per cent. 



